Parliament Approve Salary Increments For All Teachers

Parliament has approved an allocation of 71.1 billion  Shillings to enhance salaries of all secondary school teachers, Head teachers and thier deputies. The  increment will be effected in the financial year 2018/2019 which starts  on July 1.

This followed the adoption of the Budget Committee report that recommended that all secondary school teachers should get a uniform salary increment contrary to a proposal by government to increase the salaries of only science teachers.

The Budget Committee also recommended that the Speaker institutes a taskforce comprising of representatives from the Ministry of Education, Public Service and Parliament to work out a final position on how the allocation will be shared out equally.

The report was tabled by the Ntenjeru North MP Amos Lugoloobi, the Chairperson of the Budget Committee.

Parliament steered by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah also approved 18 billion Shillings to be used for the recruitment of science teachers to reduce on the shortage of in schools across the country.
This was one of the critical unfunded priorities in the Education Sector Budget for the second financial year running.

Members of Parliament also agreed to approve 9.3 billion Shillings to enable the recruitment of 1,200 English and Literature teachers in secondary schools.

The Budget Committee recommendations received overwhelming support from MPs across the political divide.

Parliament had initially rejected the pay rise for science teachers only on grounds that it discriminates against Arts teachers and offends Article 40 (1) b of the Constitution, which requires ‘Parliament to enact laws to ensure equal payment for equal work without discrimination.’

Parliament then adopted a report by the Education Committee recommending the re-allocation of the 98.5 billion Shilings that had been proposed by the Ministry of Public Service to enhance salaries of science teachers only.