Uganda: Schools Lay Off PTA Staff After No-Fee Calls, Educationists Warn Crisis Will Deepen

Kampala - Government-aided schools across the country have begun sending home teachers and support staff whose salaries are paid through Parents' and Teachers' Association (PTA) contributions, following renewed government directives against charging parents fees and other levies.

The first casualties are often teachers hired to cover subjects the government payroll does not adequately cover, alongside cleaners, guards, cooks and laboratory attendants whose wages traditionally come from parental contributions. "If the government completely insists on this, we have had to review the number of people we employ because the money we used to pay them is no longer coming in," a school administrator in Mityana told our reporter.