The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | URN | Government-aided schools across the country have begun sending home teachers and support staff whose salaries are paid through Parents’ and Teachers’ Association (PTA) contributions, following renewed government directives against charging parents fees and other levies.
The first casualties are often teachers hired to cover subjects the government payroll does not adequately cover, alongside cleaners, guards, cooks and laboratory attendants whose wages traditionally come from parental contributions. “If the government completely insists on this, we have had to review the number of people we employ because the money we used to pay them is no longer coming in,” a school administrator in Mityana told our reporter.
At Bufunjo Seed Secondary School in Kyenjojo District, the headteacher Nicolas Mbaine has directed all non-payroll staff to stay away from work “until further notice,” pending negotiations. “Following various appeals, ministry guidelines, and Kyenjojo District Local Government’s position on collection of fees in use schools, it has been decided that…you don’t report for duties until further notice, and after negotiations to that effect have been adequately exhausted,” the headteacher wrote.
The school previously had 10 teachers and seven non-teaching staff employed on PTA contracts. All 17 staff members are now at home, leaving the school with a reduced workforce and raising concerns about how the remaining staff will cope with the increased workload. Speaking to URN, Mbaine said he was unwilling to risk the embarrassment of being arrested over collecting fees from parents. He said he had advised parents to hold a meeting without his involvement and decide whether they still need the additional staff and, if so, how they would recruit and pay them.
“As the headteacher, I would not handle any fees collected from parents. If parents agree to raise money to retain the staff, they would also have to agree on how to manage and account for the funds. I’m not getting into that; if they pay, if they default, I will not be concerned. The only thing I can help is to give them technical advice during recruitment,” he added.
In Mbale, Nkoma Secondary School is weighing the same move. Of its roughly 150 to 167 teachers, about 85 are PTA-funded, and a growing number of parents are refusing to pay the fees that support them. Hajji Soudi Muhamadi Masalu, PTA chairperson, says releasing more than half of the teaching staff would cripple the school, yet there is no PTA money left to pay them, and he partly blames public messaging that has hardened parents’ resistance even to costs the government does not cover.
“We are faced with a serious decision, but we are going to be meeting next week to have a final say on the matter,” he said. He added that in a recent meeting, the Mbale Resident City Commissioner, George William Wopuwa, advised them to engage parents through the PTA to explain the problem at hand. However, from his point of view, this will be a very difficult task, as the majority of parents appear to have been swayed by the politicised matter.
Funding falls short of real costs
Capitation grants are tied to learners who meet specific UPE/USE eligibility criteria, leaving many who qualify on paper effectively unfunded once schools try to place them. Current rates are roughly UGX 6,667 per primary learner per term, UGX 58,000 per O-Level student and UGX 90,000 per A-Level student, meant to cover instructional materials, co-curricular activities, management, administration and contingencies.
Education bodies have long argued these figures fall well short of actual costs, especially amid inflation. The National Planning Authority has recommended far higher unit costs, roughly UGX 59,000 to 63,500 for primary and up to UGX 885,000 for upper secondary. With the recommended 1:40 teacher-to-pupil ratio unmet in many schools, institutions have had little choice but to levy extra fees to hire PTA teachers, even as government has periodically labelled such charges illegal without closing the gap that produces them.
Promises, still unfunded
Government has for years talked about raising capitation and recruiting more teachers. In 2023, Cabinet approved an additional UGX 1.48 trillion for education over 2024 to 2028, targeting higher capitation and roughly 78,888 new primary teachers to reach a 40:1 ratio across more than 12,000 understaffed schools. That commitment has remained largely unfunded.
The latest Education Service Commission data puts the staffing gap in post-primary alone at 42 percent, about 29,000 vacant positions, with many rural schools running on as few as five payroll staff. A recent parliamentary and Auditor General review found 231 secondary schools independently employing 8,628 staff outside the payroll, with their salary total at 61.34 billion shillings, all funded from school-generated income. Worse still, parents are defaulting, and this is accumulating billions in unpaid bills, with the audited sample showing salary arrears of 1.6 billion shillings.
Fr John Vianney Ssemujju, Mityana Diocesan Education Officer, said PTA-contracted staff form the backbone of many government-aided schools, plugging gaps the government payroll was never designed to cover. Removing that layer without replacing it, he warned, simply shifts the crisis from a funding problem to a learning-loss problem, and mass layoffs will not resolve the underlying shortfall.
“This is going to create another problem in schools, and it is the learners who will be on the losing side. I think government, foundation bodies of government-aided schools, school management committees and school boards for public schools need to find a better solution and quickly,” he noted. Schools have been accused of overcharging fees and coercing parents into paying for a litany of endless items, thereby pushing education costs up without proper justification.
Fr Ssemujju, who is also a passionate educationist, said that layoffs address the optics of the fees dispute without tackling its cause. To him, the more useful step is proper funding paired with accountability: schools should report transparently on PTA spending so parents can see the money is used only for what it was raised for. “The main point should not be the fees. But if it is agreed upon by the parents, it should be justified and rightly accounted for. If accountability is done, parents will appreciate the value for the money they are paying, be it for lunch or paying PTA staff,” he added
Gonzaga Kaswarra, an educationist, said laying off staff would not solve the problem, especially when many schools are already understaffed and under-resourced. “A sustainable fee-free policy requires government to properly cost the education of each learner and fund schools accordingly. You cannot remove one source of funding without addressing how the school will continue providing the same level of service,” Kaswarra said.
He added that parents should not be reduced to spectators in the education of their children. In his view, allowing parents to make reasonable contributions gives them a stronger stake in school affairs and increases their demand for accountability in how schools are run and resources are used.
A wider workforce at risk
Beyond teachers, cleaners, guards, cooks and administrative staff are also losing PTA-funded jobs. Unlike government teachers, who stay on payroll regardless of parental contributions, PTA-hired staff have no such protection, and their employment ends as soon as a school stops collecting the fees that pay them.
Uganda introduced UPE in 1997 and later USE, both meant to widen access by easing costs for families. But schools have long relied on parental contributions to fill funding gaps, creating an informal system that now leaves many institutions exposed as the push for genuinely fee-free education intensifies.
Ministry response
The Ministry of Education and Sports did not respond to requests for comment; some officials declined, calling the matter “controversial and political.” However, a source within the ministry, speaking anonymously, said a school fees policy is still being drafted, with accountability measures requiring schools to report PTA spending as they already do for capitation grants. Currently, PTA funds are reviewed only by individual school boards.
In July, the Uganda Joint Christian Council, the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda and other foundation bodies issued statements on fee collection after talks with government. Much of what was agreed has not held. URN understands those consultations are still ongoing with no resolution yet, and the same groups are again in talks with the ministry seeking a lasting solution.
