OPINION

By BUATRE George-An Educationist/Practicing Journalist.

Uganda’s classrooms are silent again, not because learning has ended but because the voices of teachers-the nation’s most important cultivators of knowledge are once more muffled by the chains of broken promises.

The current industrial action by primary and arts teachers is not just another wave of strikes in Uganda’s history; it is a mirror reflecting decades of neglect, economic injustice, and government indifference.

Teachers in Uganda are on strike because the government has persistently failed to honor salary enhancement commitments.

Science teachers have had their salaries adjusted upwards in the name of national priorities, while primary school teachers and arts teachers have been left behind, underpaid, and undervalued. Yet, primary school teachers, who constitute more than 70 percent of Uganda’s teaching workforce, and arts teachers, who shape the soul of human development, have been left behind, underpaid, and undervalued.

The irony is sharp and bitter: those who are tasked with building the nation’s future live in poverty in the present. Their salaries barely sustain a household, their welfare is ignored, and their pleas are dismissed with bureaucratic vocabulary.

In villages and towns across the country, the teacher remains one of the poorest figures, forced to till gardens after school hours or run boda-boda businesses to survive.

This suffering does not begin in classrooms; it originates from Uganda’s most powerful spaces. In truth, the cause of teachers’ suffering and poverty is from the wealthiest Uganda’s bedrooms-a metaphor for the elite chambers of political decision-making where the rich dictate priorities while the poor carry the consequences.

Uganda’s teachers have been in this cycle for decades. Each time they strike, government officials plead for patience, promising that “plans are underway” to address salary disparities. Each time, the dust settles, but nothing changes.

The usual language is “we are going to enhance salaries in a phased manner”.

Consider this: a primary school teacher earns, on average, UGX 400,000 to 600,000 per month (about $110–$160). Compare that with the living costs in Uganda today-a family of five needs at least UGX 1.5 million monthly to live modestly in urban areas.

What does this mean? It means the very people entrusted with educating Uganda’s children live in perpetual debt. They borrow to survive, they juggle multiple jobs, and they constantly struggle to feed their own children.

Step into a rural classroom in Uganda, and you will see the true cost of this negligence.

Sixty, sometimes one hundred or more, children are packed into one room. The walls are bare, chalk is rationed, and desks are shared. At the front stands a teacher-hungry, tired, and frustrated. “Sometimes I come to school without breakfast, and I teach children who are equally hungry,” confessed one teacher during an interview in Obongi district West Nile subregion. “At the end of the month, I take home a salary that is gone before it arrives.

My children at home suffer because I cannot provide.”

When I say the cause of teachers’ suffering and poverty lies in “the wealthiest Uganda’s bedrooms,” I mean this: Uganda’s priorities are decided in the private comfort of those who control national resources. It is in these spaces where billions are allocated to luxury convoys, inflated contracts, and political survival, while teachers are told to be “patient.”

Recent Auditor General’s reports reveal billions lost in corruption scandals annually. In 2024 alone, at least UGX 3 trillion was unaccounted for in mismanagement across ministries. Imagine if even half of that money were directed toward enhancing teachers’ salaries.

Every teacher in Uganda would live with dignity, and education standards would soar.

Teachers’ industrial action is not a disruption-it is a warning. It is a reminder that when you break the backbone of education, you cripple the nation. A country cannot rise above the quality of its teachers, and Uganda is living proof of this painful truth.

The government must rise above rhetoric. Salary enhancement should not be selective; it must be inclusive. Arts teachers and primary teachers must be recognized as essential pillars, not discarded as second-class educators. Beyond salaries, teachers need housing, healthcare, and continuous professional development.

The current teachers’ strike is not merely about money-it is about justice. It is about a government that chooses to invest in political luxuries instead of educational necessities. It is about a society that wants educated citizens but refuses to value the educators.

The poverty of teachers is not natural; it is manufactured in Uganda’s wealthiest bedrooms.

Gorge Buatre is a teacher and a practicing journalist.

It is time those bedrooms opened their doors and windows to reality. Teachers deserve dignity, respect, and fair pay. Without them, Uganda’s dream of transformation will remain a mirage. A teacher’s chalk may be small, but it writes the future. To deny them dignity is to erase the future itself.

Zoomer.africa your number one grassroot informations