LIRA– The government has released Shs 3.9 billion to pay and clear accumulated salary arrears of secondary and primary school teachers in Lira City.
About 1,200 teachers in Lira City recently went on strike after they missed their salary for three months over an alleged budget shortfall. The months include March, April, and May.
According to the city’s town clerk, Edward Kiwanuka they had a shortfall of Shs 2.6bln for primary teachers, Shs 1bln for secondary, and Shs 48mln for teachers in the tertiary institution making the total of Shs 3.9bln.
“There was nothing we could do rather than waiting for parliament to pass a supplementary budget,” he said days ago when asked to clear the air about the teachers’ salary arrears.
Edward Ayo, the Uganda National Teachers Union [UNATU] coordinator for Lira City, said the ministry of finance, planning, and economic development had released the money to clear their arrears.
“The money has already been released and very soon, teachers will receive it,” said Ayo who is a teacher at Lira Town College.
He advised head teachers to continue giving the necessary support to their teachers since many of them were traumatised because of the delay in payment of their salaries.
Lira City has six government-aided secondary and 46 primary schools.
Parliament in May approved a supplementary budget for the financial year 2021/2022, amounting to only Shs 617.947bln to clear contracts and salaries.
Jasper Abura, the City Principal Education Officer, days ago blamed the Ministry of Finance over the mess in the payment, saying they were given little money, and could not pay all the teachers for the whole financial year.
At the peak of the strikes, resident City Commissioner, Lawrence Egole, and Mayor Sam Atul, attempted to persuade the teachers to return to class but in vain.
However, a teacher who declined to be named said, they will resume strikes if they do not receive the salary arrears in their bank accounts by June 20, 2022.
https://thecooperator.news/government-earmarks-shs-23b-for-private-teachers/
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