The affected teachers said they have received only one month payment since they started working in January
Thousands of newly recruited teachers have raised concern over delays in processing their salaries. According to the affected teachers, they have received only one month payment since they started working in January.
Efforts to get comments from the Ministry of Public Service and Labour and Rwanda Basic Education Board proved futile by press time.
The frustrated teachers said they are being forced to live hand to mouth and increasingly find it difficult to feed their families. Some affected teachers told Rwanda Today that the delay in payment has been affecting their living conditions, which translates to performance in their work.
A female teacher, whoc sought anonymity for fear of administrative action said they were only paid salary for the month of March.
“I like many others joined the teaching on January 18, and we have been told that the salaries of January have been processed but since then i have only received the payment of March, which was around Rwf41,000,” she told Rwanda Today. Some teachers voiced discrepancies in their payment and contracts as some have been paid less amount money compared with their counterparts in other districts.
A teacher in Huye district received, Rwf36,000 out of Rwf156,000 which she should have cumulatively earned in the past three months.
“I have acquired a food stock loan of Rwf20,000, I paid half of it from the Rwf36, 000...,” she told Rwanda Today.
“We have been acquiring groceries on credit from local shops, promising the owners to pay back when we get paid, but with the little we got, I personally can’t pay up the accumulated amount,” She added.
Rwanda Today has learnt that the districts whose teachers have not been paid salaries are mounting up to a thousand. The teachers are mainly drawn from Gatsibo, Huye, Gisagara, Nyanza, Nyarugenge, Burera and Rusizi districts.
Despite all the newly recruited teachers having joined the teaching on January 18, Rwanda Today has learnt that in some instances some of them have been entitled to January's salaries while others don’t.
“It’s unfair. While the teachers in Nyanzabdistrict, where I was initially sent as my placement, have to be paid the January salary, those in Huye district where I am teaching right now will not get paid that month despite we all started on the same date,” Uwimbabazi added. Teachers indicate said delayed payments has made it difficult to benefit from teachers’ Savings and Credit Cooperative.
“We cannot even get an advance payment from Sacco due to the fact that we haven't gotten any salary yet. We were told that after getting the first salary and being recognisable within their system, from there we can later get those benefits,” a teacher at Groupe Scholaire Rwananmiza told Rwanda Today.
“I have now owed different people in transportation fees, food and accommodation over Rwf50, 000 due to the delayed payment,” the teacher added.