Government to pay all teachers same salary – Minister Muyingo

The minister for Higher Education, Mr John Chrysostom Muyingo, has said primary and secondary teachers will earn same salary once the new teacher’s policy that was approved by Cabinet is fully implemented.

The policy that was approved by Cabinet in 2019 stipulates that a teacher should have a maximum education qualification of a bachelor’s degree.

Speaking to journalists after the closing of the 3rd Teachers Symposium in Kampala on Friday last week, Mr Muyingo said that once the policy is implemented, the government wants teachers in nursery, primary and secondary schools to earn the same salary because they will all be having degrees.

According to Mr Muyingo, most teachers have been preferring to teach in secondary schools because they pay more money than primary schools.

He said after the implementation of the policy, teachers will be comfortable to teach either primary or secondary based on the skills they will acquire from their institutions because they will get the same pay. He did not say when the new policy will be implemented.

“The government has put in place a Public Service Salary Committee to review salaries of all public servants and we are going to ask them to take up the interest of teachers so that they earn the same pay. We want these teachers to be motivated and stop moving from one place to another looking for an increment,” Mr Muyingo said.

Muyingo aded that the policy will help to attract brilliant students to the teaching profession because the pay will be favourable.

The acting commissioner for Teacher/Tutor, Instructor Education and Training (TIET), Mr Jonathan Kamwana, told Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday that the policy had initially been slated to be implemented this year but due to the Covid-19 pandemic that led to closure of schools across the country, the plan has been interrupted.

He said the policy will, however, be implemented in a phased manner, explaining that they have started the online registration of all teachers across the country and the exercise is ongoing.

He said once the new policy is implemented, the existing national teachers colleges (NTCs) that are currently teaching diploma courses in secondary education and primary teachers’  colleges (PTCs) will start teaching degree courses.

“We shall then start phasing out the current diploma and certificate courses those institutes are currently teaching. This will be fully done in 10 years,” Mr Kamwana said.

Teachers at the Friday symposium welcomed the government’s move for same salary across the board.

Mr Nobert Bolla, a lecturer of music at Mubende NTC, said the teaching profession will be respected right from the grassroots because currently, heads of nursery schools are employing unqualified teachers to teach learners.

Current situation

Currently, a primary teacher (Grade III) earns about Shs500,000 while secondary teachers (diploma holder) earn Shs650,000 and graduates Shs800,000. Under the new policy, all teachers in the above categories will earn the same pay irrespective of whether they are teaching in nursery, primary or secondary schools.