The Leader of the Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga.
The Opposition has asked Government to consider exempting private education institutions from paying taxes for one year ahead of reopening of schools in January 2022.
The call was made by Mathias Mpuuga, Leader of Opposition while presenting a statement to Parliament on the current state of Uganda’s education sector, where he argued that the tax relief if implemented would hold relieve school owners of the debt burden they are currently battling.
“Review the taxation policy to offer tax relief to private educational Institutions for of least a year. This would free resources of indebted institutions towards fulfilling loan obligations, facilitate reinvestment or attract new investors into the education sector,” Mpuuga proposed.
The development comes at the time members of Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) informed Parliament in October that the loan portfolio for private schools is around Shs2Trn including Shs557Bn loaned to schools, Shs594Bn to teachers of private schools while Shs600Bn was lent to owners of educational commercial buildings like hostels and all these loans have had an interest rate accrue to a tune of Shs126Bn.
Mpuuga also told Parliament that the small business recovery fund proposed to Parliament by the Education Ministry was insufficient to accommodate loan requests from the high number of schools requiring financial support.
He also called on Government to present to Parliament a comprehensive resurgence plan for the education sector, indicating the actual dates when schools will reopen, which will guide the appropriations of required funds.
The Leader of Opposition also asked Parliament to compel private school teachers who have spent almost two years without formal earnings to acquire graduate qualifications was an unfair policy shift.
The Opposition also tasked the Ministry of Education to explain how the September 2020, special directive barring private education institutions from hiking schools fees will be complied with, to shield parents and guardians from exploitation by schools.
Mpuuga also tasked the Ministry of Education and Sports to clarify on the proposed selective increment of salaries for some categories of teachers, after Cabinet in August 2021 approved Shs4M as the wage for a science teacher, Shs2M as salary for Head Teachers, a decision he says caused a rift between science teachers on one part and teachers of humanities on another.
“This proposal of selective salary increment is now threatening to breakdown school administrations as lower rank employees are paid significantly better than their supervisors. We support that there is equal remuneration of workers of the some qualification and experience,” he said.
Joyce Moriku, State Minister for Primary Education acknowledged the issues raised by the Opposition and informed Parliament that the Education Ministry was undertaking some of the recommendations offered by the Leader of the Opposition.
