MICROCAPITAL.ORG STORY: Teachers of Lira, Uganda, Flee Schools Due to Failure of Loan Payment

Christopher Okumu, chief administrative officer of Kitgum District in northern Uganda, has announced that teachers in Lira, a neighbouring district of approximately 674,744 people in northern Uganda, have ‘fled’ from their respective schools as a result of defaulting on their loan payments to various microfinance institutions (MFIs) [1].

Teachers in poverty-stricken communities may take out loans from MFIs for several reasons. According to kiva.org, salaries amongst teachers in Northern Africa are usually very small. Consequently, some teachers engage in small business ventures to earn a more substantial pay, and some men take out loans to invest in their wives’ micro-enterprises. Others seek out loans to pay school fees for their children; purchase items like furniture; or start building a house or continue a dwelling project they have already started. “Teachers therefore seek loans to embark on meaningful projects and then gradually repay the loans out of their monthly salaries” [2].

Issues with teacher absenteeism, particularly in primarily schools, have arisen in Kitgum District in the past [3]. Patrick Okino and Bill Oketch, reporters for IWPR, attribute the struggles of the Ugandan school system to the aftermath of two decades of war. The reporters say school representatives and the Ugandan government introduced free primary education for all children under the country’s Universal Primary Education program (UPE), to serve the poverty-stricken communities of Uganda. The program was introduced in January 1997 and has since offered free education to four children per family. An estimated 7.6 million children are currently enrolled in state schools nationwide.

The reporters point out that a problematic result of the free UPE program is insufficient pay for teachers. “Teachers say they do not even get the state salaries they are due, and depend instead on contributions from parents, which can halt the moment there is a disagreement between them. That is one of the reasons why teachers at schools like Abella turn up for work only intermittently” [4].

District Education Officer Quinto Okello says of the National School Facility Grant Program, a program designed to provide money for teachers’ housing, that “the money provided by this fund is insufficient to provide housing for teachers at all the schools in the district.”

Kitgum Distict’s Mr. Okumu says “Some teachers have got loans from more than one institution. They got amounts that they cannot pay back. As a result, they fear going for duty as the micro-finance officials are always looking for them.” Mr. Okumu went on to explain that teachers’ low salaries accounted for some loan defaults, particularly amongst those individuals who took on multiple loans, carrying heavier debt [1].

Julius Peter Odongkara, a top civil servant in Uganda, said his department did not have the resources to help with teachers’ salaries. A three-year study conducted by James Tooley, whose expertise lies in schools for the poor, found that microschools “outperform their public school counterparts across Africa, India, and China.” This includes significantly lower rates of teacher absenteeism, higher rates of teacher commitment, and an increased the proportion of teachers actually teaching when researchers called unannounced [5]. Microschools of Opportunity^TM is an example of microschool that “provides loans to ‘edupreneurs’ who open schools in poor neighbourhoods where children cannot access public school for a variety of reasons” [6]. For more information, please visit: http://www.opportunity.org/Page.aspx?pid=410.

By: Diya Chopra, Research Associate

Bibliography:

[1] The New Vision (Uganda Online News)

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/16/694771

[2] Kiva.org

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=92376&_tpos=9&_tpg=1

[3] All Africa

http://allafrica.com/stories/200909170267.html

[4] Relief Web

http://wwww.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/RMOI-7J43KV?OpenDocument&Click=

[5] Foundation Centre

http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=183900063