Monday, 16 September, marked the first day of industrial action by the Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU), an EI affiliate. Teachers across Uganda are protesting at the Government’s failure to pay teachers a 20 per cent salary increment. After a series of negotiations and a teachers’ strike in 2011, an Inter-Ministerial Committee had agreed to increase teachers’ salaries by 50 per cent phased out over a three-year period: 15 per cent, 20 per cent and 15 per cent.
The first phase of the increment was honoured in 2012. However, in the national budget for 2013-2014, no mention was made of the agreed second-phase salary increment of 20 per cent. At an Inter-Ministerial Committee meeting in August, UNATU noted the Government’s unwillingness to make funds available to improve the quality of education. Following this, UNATU’s National Executive Council unanimously agreed upon an industrial action that would start on 16 September.
On the first day of the strike, Ugandan teachers mobilised en masse, closing over 90 per cent of classrooms. Two cases of intimidation have already been reported. In western Uganda, a head teacher at Bukumi primary school was detained at a police station on the grounds that he refused to open the school. The teacher was eventually released without charges. Another head teacher at Kibuku primary school was intimidated and threatened with dismissal.
Poor working conditions
This is not the first time Ugandan teachers have had to resort to industrial action to secure proper funding for education and a living wage for teachers. The government abolished school fees to meet the goal of universal primary education but then failed to fund schools. As a result, class sizes are commonly over 100 pupils, the primary school completion rate is only 25 per cent, and teaching conditions are poor. Teachers’ low pay has been worsened by sharp inflation that now stands at over 21 per cent. Inflation of food prices is actually around 43 per cent. Teachers’ pay in Uganda is exceptionally low, and the entry level salary is insufficient for a single person’s basic subsistence. There are continuous issues over non-payment of wages, with UGX9 billion (€2.6 million) outstanding.
Union demands
In July 2011, UNATU began a series of strike actions in support of its demands and, through the Citizens’ Action for Quality Education, presented a petition to the Parliament and the President. The campaign addressed a range of issues facing public education. As well as salary increments, UNATU also requested an implementation of the collective bargaining infrastructure, special allowances for hardship postings and for science teachers, a reduction in the delays in salary payments, and regular government contributions to the teachers’ savings and credit schemes.
The Citizens Action for Quality Education, driven by UNATU, is a rights-based strategy to improve education by prioritising children. UNATU argues that while teachers have duties and responsibilities, so does the government.