Survival strategies of teachers in government aided primary school in Bushenyi Town Council

Abstract

The development of any country in the 21stCentury will be determined by the development of its human resource and primary school teachers are pivotal in providing this cornerstone. But in Uganda, the teachers are not particularly properly remunerated to make the country achieve this developmental goal. The teachers therefore have to device means to cope with this lower wage amidst a relatively higher cost of living.

This study was conductedto explore the Survival strategies of teachers in Government Aided Primary Schools in Bushenyi Town Council. It specifically established the existing cost of living of the primary school teachers in the study area. It went further into investigate the implications of increasing cost of living,find out the strategies adopted by the teachers with increasing cost of living and finally assess the extent to which the adopted coping mechanisms have helped primary teachers to improve their living standards despite the increased cost. A sample size of 100primary respondents was taken from 20 different schools in the study area during the period 2012 – 2014. It was found that the cost of living has increased at a rate and pace that surpassed the growth of teachers’ household incomes, hence causing a general downward spin in their standards of living. It thus particularly placed detrimental effects on the quality of their deliverables. The teachers responded by petitioning their leaders to increase their salaries, refraining from undertaking certain items or activities expenditures, and engaging in income generating projects to try and augment their households’ income. It was recommended that, a compulsory end-of-month saving by the teachers through a saving scheme or Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) be instituted to give loans and provide livelihood skills training courses for the teachers. The government must also consider revising the primary teachers’ salaries to match the increased cost of living and the inflation rate at the country so that the teachers are motivated and Uganda attains the development agenda set by the global development partners.