Science teachers in Ugandan secondary schools have threatened to go on strike at the beginning on next term after it emerged that they will not be getting a salary increment starting in the new 2022-23 Financial Year.
As we reported recently, President Museveni’s government has approved salary enhancements for health professionals starting July 2022. (Read Story Here).
But science teachers in secondary schools have been advised to wait for subsequent financial years. (Read Story Here).
Now, under the Uganda Professional Science Teachers’ Union (UPSTU), secondary school science teachers say they will not return to class at the start of second term unless their salaries have been increased.
In a letter of notice they recently sent to First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni’s Ministry of Education and Sports as well as Wilson Muruli Mukasa’s Public Service, the science teachers made it clear that they have patiently waited for salary increment in vain.
UPSTU leaders said that since 2017, they have watched money meant for the enhancement of their salaries get diverted for other functions the government considers priority areas.
The union estimates that almost Shs240bn meant to increase their salaries since the FY2018-19.
They further told Ministers Ms Museveni and Mukasa that they are not happy to see a previously approved policy paper revised to divert the billions that had been secured to increase their salaries.
“Government provided Shs 400 billion in the budget to enhance salaries for all scientists including science teachers and medical workers for FY 2022/2023 as per the policy approved by cabinet and directed by H.E the President. In this fund, Shs 111 billion had been earmarked to enhance salaries for science teachers and Shs 27 billion for scientists in tertiary institutions,” the union wrote.
“We have noted with concern that the ministry of Public Service, has yet again excluded scientists in all post-primary education institutions and has instead diverted the money that was earmarked to enhance the salaries of these scientists to boost salary enhancement for other sectors.”
