A silent teacher had nothing to celebrate
PAUL ARUHO

Welikhe Tom is a secondary school teacher in Mbale. He finished his teaching course seven years ago and ever since he has been teaching in a government school but not on pay roll. He just gets his meagre allowance of 100,000/- from the school, which is also irregular.

As the world marked Labour Day on May 1, like any other Ugandan who lives on hand to mouth, he has nothing to show as a fruit of his labour.

“Many times I ask myself whether I am a worker or not. I completely have nothing to show for the last seven years I have been teaching,” he said.

Last year in November the ministry of Education and Sports interviewed teachers in different disciplines. Tom was among the hundreds of teachers who thronged the Mbale education offices to be interviewed. He is bitter with this.

“I want these people to prove to us that they were not wooing us for votes. Okay we gave them let them do their part. They called us for interviews, up to now we have never heard of them,” he said.

Labour Day is a creation of labour movements and dedicated to the social, economic achievements of workers. It is also referred to as May Day, the first day in the Month of May in remembrance of the Haymarket tragedy that occurred in Illinois, USA on May 1, 1886.
Workers were in a protest meeting, the police attempted to disperse them, then unknown person threw a bomb killing several of them.

Welikhe Tom does not see the reason to celebrate to be recognised as a worker.
“This is the day where one should look behind and say; yes this is the result of my labour. But for me when I turn back I see completely nothing, just darkness,” Welikhe said as his face turned more serious.

Tom said that it has remained a routine, the day being characterised by parades and speeches from government officials. He said he is tired of the same speeches that do not change people’s lives but instead worsens them.

Tom has a family of two children. He says that he is a bit luck to have married a working wife.
“I am among the lucky few because I my wife works. But even if, there are many challenges one gets as the head of the family. He said that his children know that their mother is the one who buys everything at home. “You can imagine even my children know that daddy is ever broke.”

Tom says that he has a workload like any other teacher in the school paid by government. He handles overcrowded classrooms going up to 80 pupils. He dreams of the day the government will employ him.

There is a lot of exploitation of teachers employed on temporary basis by their employers. They have no special consideration as teachers who depend on that particular school. When a decision is taken it cuts across the whole staff. These are teachers that have remained faithful, not joining private institutions waiting to be employed by government.

Teachers on temporal arrangement in government schools depend on the mercies of head teachers. He/she has a right to sack at any time because they know there are many out there, the unemployed waiting.

Tom wants the ministry of education and sports to come down and see what these teachers are doing in its schools. He even wants trade unions to intervene.
He says that Labour Day must remain a day to pay tribute to the contributions, workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well being of Ugandans and more especially the silent ones.