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Teachers not paid for a second month running
Pupils of Rainbow Primary School in Moroto wait to be served lunch at school. Many teachers in public schools complain that they have not been paid for two straight after they were caught in a mix as government tries to clean the payroll of ghosts. PHOTO BY STEVEN ARIONG.
What you need to know:
Several teachers in public schools had their names removed from the payroll in a clean up exercise the government set up to eliminate ghosts.
Ms Azida walked as usual to the bank at the end of July only to find there was no money. She was expected to report for her first semester on distance learning at Makerere University but she didn’t have even the money for transport from Kasese where she is teaching to Kampala.
Although she doesn’t like borrowing, this time round she had to take loans from friends to facilitate her two weeks’ stay at the university with her two year old daughter. But every day, she would walk to the teller machine to see if salary had been paid and returned frustrated. It’s been two months of work without pay and the reason according to her unknown.
“I have been on payroll for the last five years. I earn Shs330, 000 per month and I have learnt to disintegrate this money well to meet a few of my needs like rent which takes Shs70, 000 for a single bed roomed house and Shs100, 000 on food. I pay in installments fees for my two other children which has become difficult this term,” Ms Azida told Education Guide.
However, she added that some of her colleagues have been paid. She is part of the teachers, whose particulars were erroneously deleted from the payroll and two months after government claimed to have sorted out their salary arrears, Azida is wondering why that claim was made as her predicament has not changed. The Uganda National Teachers Union has also disputed the government claim.
Union cries out
Unatu secretary general, Ms Teopista Birungi, says the organization has been collecting information about the affected teachers and hopes they will be paid in October, at least in districts whose Chief Administrative officers have responded.
Ms Birungi said it’s a big challenge for a teacher whose salary is low but has to endure months of non-payments and continue serving amidst the rising cost of living. “The teachers have not been paid. The indication is that they will be paid in October. “It’s not easy to be put back on the payroll and most important is how were these teachers removed? It is not clear to know what happens with ghost teachers. “In an attempt by government to remove these ghosts, they instead removed living persons creating more confusion,” Ms Birungi explained.
DEO also deleted
Kabale District Education Officer, Mr Emmanuel Nize’Imana yesterday said he was also affected and has not been reinstated. He questions the system that was used in trying to clean up the payroll saying it only “introduced more ghosts.”
Useful advise
But Ms Birungi is appealing to government to use the Education Service Commission to pay the teachers instead of Public Service so that the process is streamlined since ESC’s is responsible for recruiting and deploying the teachers. “Good teachers are running away from the profession which is under attack of casualisation, disrespect and mismanagement. Our biggest appeal is that we transfer salary payments for teachers from public service to Education service commission,” she said.
Last month, public service spokesperson, Mr Jonas Tumwine, said teachers who had not earned their pay since July had been paid. “All I can confirm is that we have paid salaries and arrears and people are lining up at the banks to get money,” Mr Tumwine said. Government deleted several teachers from the payroll in an apparent effort to rid it of ghosts but the exercise also saw several wrongly deleted.
To compound matters agreement on the actual number of victims has been hard to come by in a continuing ping pong between the union and the government. Unatu says at least 30, 000 were removed from the pay roll while government insists the number os much less but given that the affected are not in one block but represent individuals scattered in schools across the country realising the actual magnitude is difficult.
Haunted by ghosts
Presence of ghost teachers, pupils and schools has haunted efforts to universalise education and improve its quality and remuneration of staff for years. A commission of inquiry established in 2009 to investigate the problem has also suffered while often various departments have wedged an unending blame game on who is responsible.
The Ministry of Education accuses public service of being responsible for payroll management, public service in turn points fingers at Education which manages and therefore should which numbers are present teaching in schools. Both public service and Education blame the ministry of Finance for failing to release the required monies to settle matters like enhancement of pay and quick resolution of disputes like actual numbers.
