By Juma Magino
BUSIA
Secondary school headteachers in Busia district have threatened to close schools if the government does not consider paying their salaries for the months of February and March, 2023 respectively.
The headteachers revealed this plan while meeting district leaders led by the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer- D-CAO Mrs. Angela Akurut, in a meeting held at Macho-Chango Hall in Busia municipality yesterday, 28/3/2023.
James Nangali, the head teacher, Riverside High School in Busitema Sub County tasked the D-CAO to give them an explanation as to why their salary arrears for the last two months have not yet been released. He also asked the D-CAO to grant all the headteachers permission to close the schools for a period of 3 weeks until the government responds to their outcries.
Nangali, said that the teachers have been affected psychologically, especially those who borrowed loans from money lenders and cannot payback yet the pressure and interest rates keep on expanding.
Daniel Oketcho, the head teacher of Masaba College backed the suggestion of his colleague, James on closing the schools. He attributed this to the hard financial misery the teachers are living in basing on the fact that many of them were transfered from different areas and they have to incur the burden of paying rent and other utilities in their daily life which is costly.
However, the Principle Human Resource Officer, Mr. Wycliffe Sumba Ojambo urged the teachers to be calm and assured them that their issue will soon be addressed and the process has already kick started. He said that the district has submitted a supplementary budget to Parliament which also approved it.
He added that the delays were caused by the recent salary enhancements to science teachers by President Museveni and the Ministry of Education also added more teachers to the district which ended up causing the normal wage bill to have a deficit of shs2 Billion.
On her part, Angela Akurut, the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, encouraged the teachers to carry on with their duties because the government cannot release their payments when teachers have shunned schools. She called for patience until the issue is resolved amicably.
