Meeting between Education Minister, striking University staff postponed

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A meeting between Education Minister Janet Museveni and executives of public universities will not take place as planned this weekend. The meeting had been organized to discuss the interminable salary enhancement woes of staff in public universities.

The minister had sent out an invitation early this week, to leaders of public universities, to discuss the issues surrounding their strike, which has now entered its eighth day eight.  The meeting was planned at the backdrop of a strike that started on August 1, 2019.

The striking staff want the government to release all due and outstanding funds for their salary enhancement, which, according to earlier commitments, would be completed in the 2019/2020 financial year.

Dr Grace Lubaale, the chairperson of the Forum for Academic Staff of Public Universities -FASPU says that although the government promised to increase the salaries of all staff in five years, the suggested period elapsed without any adjustments.  Under the commitments, a professor was expected to earn up to the 15 million Shillings by 2020.

Currently, a professor in Science discipline earns 9.6 million Shillings, while a Professor in the Arts and humanities ears 8.5 million Shillings per month.  The government has already allocated 15 billion Shillings to cater for salary enhancement of staff in public universities. However, staff say they want all their 178 billion Shillings needed to reach a mark of 15 million Shillings for a professor pro-rata this financial year.

Staff have refused to report to work despite repeated pleas by their Vice-Chancellors who offer hope to the staff of goodwill by the government to fulfil its promise.

However, despite the stalemate, URN has learnt that the meeting which was due to take place on Saturday, August 10, 2019, has been postponed. The reason for the decision remains unclear.

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URN