By Gerald Niyirinda
Lack of hard-to-reach allowances for Primary School teachers in newly established Town Councils in Kisoro has left them with no option but to apply for transfers, the Kisoro District Education Office has said.
Mwunvaneza Emmanuel, the Kisoro District Education Officer (DEO), told the Kisoro District Council sitting on Thursday May 30, that the affected teachers are seeking transfers to Sub-Counties where they hope to earn hard-to-reach allowances.
This stems from a recent decision by the Kisoro Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Hajj Badru Majwala Mayanja to halt the allowances for teachers in Town Councils of Rukundo, Mupaka and Nkuringo, starting with April 2024.
When asked recently by www.vomuhabura.com, Hajj Mayanja said he implemented a policy from both the Local Government and Finance Ministries.
However, as he addressed the Kisoro District Council yesterday, Mr Mwumvaneza expressed the agony of most teachers, who have since applied for transfer from schools in the urban councils, for failure to receive the said allowances.
Teachers, on top of their salary, earn additional 30% of their gross pay, which is between 130,000 and 170,000 Shillings, as hard-to-reach allownces.
According to Mwumvaneza, the development has even led to deletion of some teachers on the payroll due to less pay compared to their monthly loan instalments.
‘For instance, four teachers from Rwanzu are going because they feel frustrated of the hard-to-reach allowance,” he said.
Councillors regretted the problem, saying it would further negatively affect school performance.
They wondered why the decision to cut the allowances affected only. The Councillors also wondered why teachers from Rukundo Town Council were affected by the policy, yet the urban council does not receive funding as a Local Government Administrative unit.
Meanwhile, Speaker Amos Hakizimana, asked the Human Resource Department to be cautious while recommending civil servants for loans. He says multiple borrowing by civil servants has left some of them deleted on payroll for failure to service the acquired loans.
Recently, Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) Kisoro branch petitioned the office of the District Speaker against what they called the ‘unjust decision’ made by the Chief Administrative Officer to abruptly halt the payment of hard-to-reach allowances.
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