The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Education and Sports has issued guidance on how private school teachers affected by the covid-19 lock down will benefit from the relief package promised by the government.
In July, President Museveni committed said that the government will set up a revolving fund of 22 billion shillings aimed at supporting more than 75,000 teachers in private education institutions whose livelihoods were disrupted when schools were closed in March.
However, the implementation of the pledge had failed to take off due to several issues ranging from management of the fund and non-existence of formal structures among the targeted group.
The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education Alex Kakooza has now directed district education officers to inform management of private schools to establish associations at the school level and elect representatives which will later constitute the district associations.
“The membership of a private school teachers’ association shall be a qualified and registered teacher, actively engaged in teaching in a private school and not on any government payroll.
Representatives of a private school teachers’ association should have been formally employed in the school before 20th march 2020,” Kakooza noted in the letter addressed to all Chief Administrative Officers reads in part.
However, Kakooza points out that proprietors or directors of private schools will not be considered for membership of the associations.
According to the circular, District Education Officers, will not later than the first week of 2021 forward names of chairpersons and organizing secretary from every district to the ministry to participate in the inaugural national meeting to establish a National Private Teachers Association.
Previously, the funds were supposed to be channelled through the Microfinance Support Centre as part of the Emyooga program. However, there has been a lot of disagreement based on the MSC history on handling teachers’ money coupled with lobbying from different teacher associations who wanted to control the fund as well.
A section of teachers was concerned by the fact that private school teachers are not yet organized under SACCOs through which they could access funding from Microfinance Support Centre.
The Ministry then engaged over seven organizations that had come forward as representing teachers in private schools but they all lacked grassroots structures or membership with national reach to represent the majority of teachers in private schools across the country.
The ministry has already suggested that the grant should be managed as a revolving fund by a competent fund manager sourced through government procurement regulations and a due diligence exercise on prospective fund managers and the procurement process is now underway.
Gyaviira Tamale, a private school teacher from Masaka says that most of them have lost hope in the government fund and embarked on looking for alternative ways of sustaining their lives.
“Somebody who is economically stressed due to school closures can’t wait for government relief for nine months. They are just taking us for a ride by pretending to be doing something for us. With that said arraignment, the money might be available in July next, they are just jokers,” says Tamale.
********
URN
