Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Chief of the Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, has urged authorities to table a supplementary seek recordsdata from to Parliament to address the pay disparities between science and humanities teachers.
He offered the recommendation all thru plenary on Tuesday, 24 June 2025, wherein he warned that arts and humanities teachers across the nation had gone on strike, annoying pay equity and the topic needs to be addressed.
Ssenyonyi also acknowledged that curbing public corruption would release the mighty wanted funds. “The IGG says we lose over Shs 10 trillion to corruption each year. Quit stealing taxpayers’ cash and there’ll be cash to pay the lecturers,” he acknowledged.
Arts field teachers started placing in early June over salary disparities, earning lower than half of of what their colleagues in a quantity of subject matters salvage.
“They are asserting they are teachers too, ultimate like the science teachers, but they’ve been discriminated towards severely. They’ve warned that they don’t seem like going to bear assessments, and that also can very effectively be a wide bother for our young these which could well be in class,” Ssenyonyi acknowledged.
Per available data, graduate science teachers carry out Shs4 million while diploma holders carry out Shs3 million. Most arts teachers in the period in-between carry out below Shs1 million.
Lecturers with identical qualifications and workloads, the Chief of the Opposition noted, indulge in been being paid grossly unequal salaries, with arts teachers earning up to four times lower than their science counterparts.
“We’re blissful science teachers got a elevate. Nevertheless that you can now now not attain it for some and now now not others,” he argued.
He extra pointed to absurd conditions the set headteachers with arts qualifications supervise science teachers who carry out bigger than them, calling it a “management disaster.”
He also cited the Auditor Total’s file for the year ending 2024, which revealed that retired science teachers salvage pensions better than the month-to-month salvage pay of currently serving arts teachers.
In response, the Authorities Chief Whip, Denis Hamson Obua, confirmed that engagements between the tutoring ministry and the leadership of arts teachers indulge in been ongoing.
“There is now not any such thing as a intimidation at all, we imagine in dialogue and consensus,” he assured the House.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa who chaired the House acknowledged the urgency of the topic and asked the field minister to update the House once negotiations bear.
The Minister of Notify for Bigger Education, Chrysostom Muyingo, acknowledged the ministry had held a quantity of meetings with the lecturers and that their leadership had agreed to suspend the strike.
“Authorities is dedicated to rob the salaries of all our public servants in an incredible system,” Muyingo acknowledged, promising suggestions from consultations by Thursday.
Within the period in-between Sarah Opendi (NRM, Tororo District Girl Guide) added her narrate to the debate, highlighting equally pressing concerns about pay disparities amongst authorities attorneys.
“There is a severe pay disparity amongst the attorneys working in the police force and a quantity of attorneys in authorities,” Opendi acknowledged.
She warned that the discrepancy was once fueling an exodus of valid officers from the Uganda Police Power to a quantity of departments, particularly the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Authorized legitimate Total’s Chambers, the set pay is critically better.
“This topic was once presented here. The final time, the Authorized legitimate Total acknowledged they had appealed. I want to command, there is now not any such thing as a energetic allure,” she acknowledged.
The Deputy Speaker backed her call and directed that the Authorized legitimate Total update the House on the bother.
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SOURCE: Parliament of Uganda
