SMALL BUT BETTER THAN NOTHING! Arts Teachers and Headteachers Will Still Earn Way Below Science Teachers Despite Salary Increment

Four years after the government sparked a storm by dramatically increasing the salaries of science teachers while leaving their arts counterparts behind, arts teachers have finally received a long-awaited pay rise.

But while the latest salary enhancement is likely to be welcomed after years of strikes, protests and demands for salary harmonisation, the new figures reveal that arts teachers and arts-based headteachers will still earn significantly less than science teachers.

The announcement was made by the Minister of Public Service, Gen. Katumba Wamala, as he unveiled the government’s latest salary enhancement for teachers, which takes effect in July 2026.

“The biggest highlight of our presentation today is the salary enhancement for teachers,” Gen. Katumba Wamala said.

He announced that graduate arts teachers will now earn UGX 1,357,964 per month, up from UGX 745,000.

“Graduate arts teacher from seven hundred and forty-five thousand (UGX 745,000) to one million three hundred and fifty-seven thousand nine hundred and sixty-four (UGX 1,357,964),” Gen. Katumba Wamala said.

The minister also announced an increase for arts-based secondary school headteachers.

“A head teacher of arts background in a secondary school from two million two hundred and seventy thousand nine hundred and eighty-four (UGX 2,270,984) to three million one hundred and sixty-two thousand five hundred (UGX 3,162,500),” Gen. Katumba Wamala said.

Despite the increase, graduate arts teachers will still earn far less than graduate science teachers, who have been taking home about UGX 4 million per month since the government’s science salary enhancement took effect in July 2022. The new salary of UGX 1,357,964 means graduate arts teachers will earn only about one-third of what their science counterparts receive.

Similarly, while arts-based secondary school headteachers will now earn UGX 3,162,500, they will also remain below the salaries paid to comparable science-based school administrators under the government’s enhanced science salary structure.

The pay gap also means that in many secondary schools, an arts-based headteacher could continue supervising graduate science teachers who earn substantially more than the school’s chief administrator.

While the headteacher remains responsible for overall school management, staff supervision, budgeting, discipline, academic performance and accountability, some of the teachers under his or her direct supervision may continue taking home higher monthly salaries.

That scenario has been one of the central arguments advanced by arts teachers and their unions since the government’s science salary enhancement was introduced in 2022.

They maintained that the disparity undermines morale and creates an awkward management structure in which a school leader is paid less than some of the employees he or she is expected to supervise, evaluate and hold accountable.

Although the latest salary enhancement narrows the gap for arts headteachers, it does not completely eliminate that anomaly.

The salary disparity has been one of the most contentious issues in Uganda’s education sector over the past four years.

Following the 2022 enhancement for science teachers, arts teachers repeatedly organised sit-down strikes, threatened industrial action and petitioned the government, arguing that the policy had created two classes of teachers within the same schools.

Teacher unions consistently demanded salary harmonisation, maintaining that arts subjects are equally important to the country’s education system and should attract comparable remuneration.

The issue repeatedly dominated negotiations between teachers’ representatives and the government, with arts teachers insisting that equal work deserved fairer compensation regardless of subject specialization.

Although the latest enhancement does not eliminate the gap between science and arts teachers, it represents the first major salary adjustment for arts teachers since the government’s controversial 2022 pay reforms.

For many arts teachers, the increase may not deliver full parity with their science counterparts, but after four years of agitation, it is likely to be seen as a meaningful—if incomplete—step toward addressing one of the education sector’s most divisive pay disparities.

You can see the new salary figures for primary school teachers and headteachers Here.

The list of other government employee categories whose salaries will be increased starting this month is Here.

The full salary structure that will be replaced after salary increment is HERE.