East Africa: Learning Seriously Affected in Uganda, Kenya
By Henry Neondo
Learning in East Africa has seriously been affected by strikes called by teachers in Uganda and Kenya. The 240, 000-strong Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) wants 18,060 teachers hired by the government on contract taken on a permanent basis, and a further 10,000 new ones employed to meet the existing staff shortage.
But while the government concedes there is a shortage of about 75,000 teachers in public schools, it argues there is no money to employ them. About Sh6 billion is required to recruit the proposed number of teachers. But the employment of the 28,060 teachers is not all that Knut is asking for.
“We also want the government to employ the 20,000 early childhood education teachers it promised earlier in the year,” secretary-general David Okuta says.
In Uganda, over 8 million pupils were left alone playing in public schools grounds as teachers stayed away from their stations of work. Mr Joseph Ssewungu Gonzaga, a teacher was quoted as saying that “whoever is ordering teachers to teach is a ‘witch and night dancer’ since teachers cannot teach on empty stomachs”.
He was responding to calls for teachers to return to work by the country’s Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi who had on Sunday warned that teachers who fail to report for duty will be replaced.
The over 160, 000 Ugandan teachers are demanding increases in salary. Sources disclose that a Ugandan teacher earns Shs263,000 (US$150) “How we can use Sh200,000 that they give us in salary yet a sack of charcoal goes for Shs70,000,” a teacher was quoted as telling the press.
A Press statement from the Uganda National Teachers Union, Unatu, said “investing in the nation’s teachers is not about teachers, it is about the children of our country, the quality of our labour force and hence the competitiveness of our economy in an increasingly globalizing world. We therefore ask our government to honour its obligations to the children and youth of our nation by addressing the working conditions of teachers so that they deliver quality services”.