After enhancing the science teachers' salaries in the 2022/2023 financial year budget, The Fatboy Show presenters described their appeal urging arts teachers to call off the strike as hypocritical.
Yesterday, the secretary-general of the Uganda Professional Science Teacher's Union (UPSTU), Aron Mugaiga, called upon his arts counterparts to resume teaching while negotiating with the government because they might not recover the lost time to complete their respective syllabi.
James Onen, aka Fatboy, asked “How come he didn’t say the same to his science colleagues back when they were striking?”
“This is very hypocritical of him because even science teachers had a strike for the same reasons at some point,” Olive responded.
Fatboy even recalled that neither science teachers nor Mr. Mugaiga called off their industrial action when demanding their own pay rise from the government.
However, Kim, a caller on the show, had contrasting views from theirs. He said negotiations for the enhancement of science teachers’ salaries had been ongoing since 2020. In his opinion, sciences have a greater impact on social development and well-being of society as compared to arts.
“Arts teachers aren’t on the same level as science teachers. I understand that they may have the same qualifications but what they teach is different. Because life can go on without a lawyer, but it can’t go on in the absence of a doctor or surgeon,” he said.
However, another contributor to the topic of discussion regarded the government’s move of raising only science teachers' salaries as discriminatory.
“I think all those subjects matter, and that’s why we study them. But I think Government's intention is to have more teachers enroll in science subjects.
He also supported The Uganda National Teachers Union (UNATU) strike saying that even though they met with President Museveni, they were not accorded a solution, and the government might respond as a result of their sit-down strike.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.