Teachers across the country have grudgingly returned to class after a three-week long strike over salary raise that paralyzed the education sector.
After a 30-minute meeting with President Yoweri Museveni on Monday, the Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) leaders decided to call off the strike with no deal reached.
This sparked up an uproar teachers and netizens with many claiming UNATU leaders had been bribed.
UNATU leaders have, however, dismissed the bribery allegations, insisting that calling off the strike was a hard decision they reached after a lengthy discussion.
“Of course in the public domain, even before we started negotiations, there has been thinking that UNATU leaders are always bribed,” UNATU general secretary Filbert Baguma said in a video recording.
The stand-off between government and teachers resulted from the government’s decision to increase the pay for science teachers nearly by 300 percent in total disregard of the arts teachers.
The increment saw the government increase the pay for graduate and grade V science teachers to Shs4 million and Shs3 million respectively up from Shs1.1 million and Shs796,000 respectively.
The arts teachers raised an alarm and consequently laid down their tools only to coil without reaching any deal with the government regarding the salary raise.
