Ugandan Teachers Threaten Strike for Funding
A Primary Class in Uganda
Teachers in the Ugandan district of Masaka have threatened to go on strike if money is not provided to run their schools
The schools are owed 300 million Ugandan shillings to buy basic learning materials like textbooks and also food for the pupils. There are 354 state funded schools in the district. The money is owed under the Universal Primary Edcuation (UPE) Scheme. Emmanuel Namugera deputy headmaster of a primary school said in an interview in the Daily Monitor: “Without the most basic books and learning materials, teachers are demoralized and pupils are not receiving the full benefit of their education”.
The UPE was brought in by the Ugandan government in an effort to acieve the Millenium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education by 2015. As a result the government abolished school fees in an attempt to get the 750,000 children who at present don’t go into school. As a result more children have flooded into schools but as the experience in Masaka shows the money is not there to support them. Not only is there a lack of teaching materials - one school had a target of three children to a desk for example - but the classes can be vast.
Last year schools in the district had to wait a whole year before getting the necessary resources. Uganda is a potentially rich country - fertile and with mineral and oil reserves but like many other countries in the Global South the majority of its population see little benefit with 35% living below the poverty line and an average life expectancy of 52. it is one of the so-called Highly Indebted Poor Countries and as such in receipt of the attentions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Teachers there are doing a heroic job and deserve all our solidarity in their struggle for education funding.
March 10 2010 11:52 am | General