Prime
Teachers’ efforts should be rewarded
Author: Francis Mwijukye. PHOTO/FILE/COURTESY
What you need to know:
Uganda will not have a better future if the education sector remains in shambles, and without well trained, motivated and facilitated teachers, the education question will remain unresolved.
On October 15, 2023, Uganda joined the world to celebrate the International Teachers’ Day. It is such an important day in which the world celebrates and appreciates the sacrifices that teachers make in educating our children.
There is no doubt that teachers are the greatest contributors to our development since every profession goes through the hands of teachers, and indeed as the saying goes, there is no country that can be greater than the quality of its teachers. From lawyers to doctors, engineers to economists, politicians to businessmen and drivers to pilots, everyone went through the hands of a teacher!
Teachers do exceptional work; they inspire children, encourage, support, mentor, nurture, protect, guide and shape them into mature responsible citizens.
With the advent of women emancipation where women have taken a center stage in professional work, business and governance, teachers have in addition to teaching taken over the role of parenting as children spend more time with teachers than with the biological children. This underpins the unmatched value of teachers in our country.
However, despite the huge contribution, it is unfortunate that teachers are not valued and appreciated by the society and most importantly the government; Teachers earn the smallest salary as compared to most professions, their working conditions are poor, they aren’t given necessary scholastic materials to use in course of doing their work to mention but a few.
The most disheartening is that teachers have been divided among Arts and Science teachers yet they all have similar workload, work in similar conditions, studied in the same Universities, buy from the same markets and generally have similar aspirations. The Primary teachers have continued to earn peanuts as if they are not valued among other challenges.
A primary teacher earns a net pay of Shs420,000 per month. From this money he or she is expected to pay food, rent, school fees for his children, medical care, clothing, bills like water & electricity among others. This has left the majority of teachers in hands of loan sharks and money lenders who chop their salaries on a monthly basis and teachers have to basically work as volunteers. These loans are inevitably unavoidable if a teacher is to buy a piece of land, put up a small house or do a business for his wife.
As a result, most teachers are highly indebted, unable to have basic needs for themselves and living a miserable life. It’s disheartening when a teacher is teaching other people’s children but cannot teach his own children or when he cannot afford three meals a day for his or her family.
In the past, parents were encouraged to make some contribution through PTA and this would supplement the government salary, however this has been stopped by the government through a directive by the President. So the head teachers have no right to ask parents to contribute something for their children yet the government does not send enough money to run the schools hence leaving them in paradox.
Therefore, the country, the leaders, the Parliament and the Executive arm of government should take teachers’ plight as an urgent concern.
Their issues and complaints should concern all of us because after all they affect our children. Uganda will not have a better future if the education sector remains in shambles, and without well trained, motivated and facilitated teachers, the education question will remain unresolved.
The writer, Mr Francis Mwijukye, is MP for Buhweju County
