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Kisoro science teachers claim UPSTU will give a stronger voice to make demands for their wellbeing
Kisoro, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Over 100 science teachers from Kisoro district yesterday defected from their umbralla body Uganda National Teachers Union-UNATU to Uganda Professional Science Teachers Union-UPSTU.
UNATU has been recognized as a force to reckon with since 2006 and with over 140,000 members, it is the largest and oldest teachers union in the country.
One of the major roles of UNATU is collective bargaining and promoting the attractiveness of the teaching profession.
However in 2018, science teachers broke away from UNATU accusing the mother union of sabotage and betraying their demand for a better pay leading to the creation of UPSTU.
Eldad Mugisha, a science teacher at Kanaba SS says that together with other science teachers, they will give UPSTU a stronger voice to make demands for their wellbeing.
John Mukiza, another science teacher said he is hoping that the association will negotiate with the government to honor it’s promise on science teachers’ salary increment that the President pledged.
President Yoweri Museveni pledged to increase the pay to about 2.2million Shillings for graduate and UGX 1.5 million Shillings for grade five science teachers.
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Iam a UNATU member but i think the root cause of poor welfare of teachers is UNATU bcz it’s dominated by primary teachers who do not share in the plight of secondary teachers. I can’t imagine teachers trained for the same period and paying the same fees to earn differently on the name of ”science teachers”. Some of these teachers can’t even articulate issues later on teach and students pass yet they are the loudest in demanding for pay rise as a smaller group. I think UNATU should be more relevant to the teachers and also press for welfare of all teachers not just science teachers bcz the Ugandan curriculum doesn’t only have science subjects but also arts subjects. The UNATU sacco has not benefitted teachers as expected.
True teachers should be treated equally bse they work together as teachers by professionial. If not abolish Arts in secondary schools and we elect a president who did science to develop the country.