Tuesday, November 15, 2011

To have a smile on teachers’ faces, the least paid deserves Sh1.5m monthly

Vincent Nuwagaba

I was compassionately touched by Gastone Zehireyo’s letter in the press titled, “Teacher makes accountability of family earning, appeals for help” (Saturday Monitor October 21, 2011). Let’s critically analyse the letter and offer durable solutions. The letter doesn’t fully give a grim reality of the plight of the teachers. Rather, it points out just a tip of the iceberg. Unlike some other teachers whose spouses don’t earn a penny, Mr Zehireyo’s wife supplements his meagre income. Luckily, Zehireyo’s wife is not a demanding wife; otherwise she would want her hair plaited every week which would cost him not less than Sh80,000 a month. That Zehireyo can use only Sh1,000 on airtime shows the highest degree of patriotism and frugality. Zehireyo is less burdened given that he has only four children and doesn’t have other dependants – his siblings, parents and/ or other relatives. I know of teachers in my home county Ruhinda who carry the burden of the whole of their extended families yet they earn Sh250,000.
Not long ago, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kahinda Otafiire while on the KFM Hot Seat praised Government for UPE and USE. When in a text message I challenged him to prove whether genuinely we have UPE and USE given that Government remits a paltry Sh41,000 and less than Sh2,000 for each USE student and UPE pupil respectively, Gen Otafiire said, “Let that gentleman take his children to private schools if he has money; UPE and USE are for the poor”. How absurd! Is that justice? Virtually all current Ugandan leaders had humble beginnings but attended good schools because then, ones mental faculties determined which school they could join. Today, there’s de facto apartheid in our education system with the topnotch schools reserved for the children of the politicians, corrupt civil servants and first-rate businessmen some of who do business with government and rarely pay taxes thanks to the Spoils System. Today, ones mental faculty neither determines which programme they will pursue in the university nor which job one gets after university. Uganda is sinking into the doldrums of mediocrity and Government has sadly turned cavalier. Teachers want their children to study medicine, engineering, pharmacy, law, architecture, inter alia – lucrative careers. Accordingly, since quality education has become a commercial commodity to be purchased with money, teachers deserve adequate remuneration to purchase quality education for their children and dependants. Teachers’ children shouldn’t be condemned to the gutters.
I grew up in Bushenyi seeing teachers as the local elites raising admirable families and their children studied from St Mukasa Preparatory Seminary Mushanga, Kashozi Primary School, Kitabi Seminary, Bweranyangi Girls and other topnotch schools. Absurdly, today teachers’ children study from UPE and USE schools which Otafiire rightly said are for the poor. Our teachers are impoverished and ultimately, some teachers’ children will most likely fail to qualify to be teachers.
Appallingly, today teachers have no money for medical treatment! Surely, if teachers were paid a living wage, Cecilia Nambozo who recently died in a labour ward in Mbale Regional Referral Hospital would raise Sh300,000 to save her life.
That teachers’ children use kerosene lamps while reading is hazardous to their eyes but also inhaling kerosene smoke renders them susceptible to lung cancer. Government should give teachers solar energy. Does prosperity for all which entails health, wealth and education for all benefit teachers who cannot afford healthcare services and university tuition fees for their children? Zehireyo’s letter further reveals the grim reality that teachers’ children are malnourished. His children don’t take milk or millet porridge not because they are not necessary but because they cannot afford them. This will miserably dwindle their mental development hence affecting their academic performance.
I am sure if Uganda’s prime minister lost 500,000 – an amount teachers initially demanded, most likely he will not realise that he lost money. If we want a smile on our teachers’ faces and results from them, the least paid must in the short-term earn a monthly living wage of not less than Sh1.5m and all workers’ wages must increase commensurately with inflation and costs of living. This calls for fiscal discipline and strenuous fight against corruption. Otherwise, our society has enough to satisfy our needs but not enough to satisfy all our greed. Alternatively, the government should harmonise emoluments for all public servants on the basis of academic qualifications, output and experience. Uganda ratified the ILO Convention 100 (Equal Remuneration Convention) on 2nd June 2005. Accordingly, the government is enjoined to respect its treaty obligations in line with the principle of Pacta Sunt Servanda in Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
Mr Nuwagaba is a human rights defender
mpvessynuwagaba@gmail.com

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