Over 500 teachers quit the profession in just one year over pay, a Unatu leader has revealed. The Uganda National Teachers’ Union (Unatu) says it has been recording teachers who quit the profession.
Unatu secretary general Filbert Baguma described the number of teachers quitting the profession every year as “significant.”
The teachers’ union boss says that teachers have waited for their welfare and working conditions to improve for many years in vain, and have been left with no option but to leave the profession they once cherished.
Baguma says that between January 01, 2025 and December 31, 2025, Unatu saw up to 535 teachers, registered with the union, quit the profession.
He added that most of teachers quitting the profession are males, and that most of them are leaving because they “can’t withstand the pressures” amidst the poor working conditions.
At least 412 of the teachers who quit last year were males, according to records at Uganda National Teachers’ Union.
“This trend reflects the difficult conditions in schools, which are pushing many teachers to seek early retirement because they can no longer cope with the pressure,” said Baguma during a public dialogue on financing public education in Uganda at Fairway Hotel in Kampala. “Some, of course, are abandoning their duties, saying ‘enough is enough,’ and walking away.”
Among other difficult conditions that teachers in Uganda work under is the issues of salaries. While graduate science teachers in secondary schools earn up to Shs4m (science head teachers shs6.5m and their deputies Shs4.5m) as gross pay, other teachers still earn peanuts in an economy where the cost of living is high.
There are plans to increase the salaries of science teachers to Shs8m per month, with arts teachers expected to get a 25 per cent salary increment starting July 2026. (See Details Here and There).
As The Pearl Times has reported, science teachers have been opting for early retirement so as to get huge retirement packages after government increased their salaries, a move that threatened to cause a crisis and prompted President Museveni to take tough action. (See Details Here and There).
You can see the full salary structure for all government employee categories in the current financial year, as well as lists of most highly paid civil servants Here, There and Over There.
