KARAMOJA NEWS Truth All Day
Related Articles
By Emmanuel Olinga-Katakwi
Teachers in Katakwi district have decried to the government to consider them to also benefit from the hard to reach allowances.
Their pleas have been awakened by the floods disaster and also suffered frustration of riding bicycles for about 5 to 10 km to their respective work places.
Pius Oler, the deputy head teacher of Town Ship Primary School, who previously taught at Lokales Primary School in Amudat Local Government school, drew government attention to the fact that Karamoja teachers are paid 30% of their total wage due to a difficult-to-achieve allowance.
Oler claims that Katakwi has almost the same tough climatic conditions as Karamoja, hence the government should consider providing teachers in Katakwi the same benefit.
Katakwi District Chairperson Geoffrey Omolo says the district has been plagued by floods for the past six months. He agrees with the request, stating that the district also suffers from other disasters such as extreme heat during droughts and insecurity caused by suspected Karimojong cattle invasions.
Katakwi district officials have appealed to the central government for food aid, citing a number of disasters that have hampered production. He wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office to highlight his people’s predicament.
Kadrace Turyagyenda, Public Secretary Ministry of Education and Sport, assured that, among other issues, the ministry is concerned with teacher’s policy. She stated that many related issues have been raised in other regions to the ministry, but promised to report on the issue of hard to reach presented by Katakwi teachers in the management meeting.
Rtd Maj. Jessica Alupo, the vice president of the Republic of Uganda, urged the government to emphasize the well-being of teachers in the country, recognizing the difficulties that the teaching profession faces. She stated that the administration is committed to looking into critical issues that teachers face.
Government introduced a 30% allowance to primary teachers working in hard-to-reach areas way back in the 2010/2011 financial year. The districts considered by then were those that are remote, insecure, have poor infrastructure, and suffered prolonged conflicts, are surrounded by water bodies or are mountainous.
The 21 beneficiary districts were Kotido, Abim, Kaabong, Moroto, Nakapiripirit, Amudat, Pader, Kitgum, Lamwo, Amuru, Gulu, Adjumani, Kalangala, and Mukono (islands of Buvuma and Koome). Others were Bundibugyo, Ntoroko, Kisoro, Kanungu, Mayuge (Island of Malongwe), the Bukwa and Bugiri (Island of Sigulu).
