The teacher gap: why Uganda’s private schools are paying 40% more than the government scale

When the Ministry of Public Service published the 2025 teacher pay scales, the headline was modest: a 6% adjustment across U1, U2 and U3 grades, broadly tracking inflation. The story below the headline is harder. Across Praecip’s sample of forty Kampala-region private secondary schools, the average effective monthly compensation for a fully-qualified A-Level subject teacher now sits roughly 40% above the comparable government band, once housing, transport and exam-marking allowances are included.

That gap is not theoretical. We spoke to twelve heads of department who, between them, lost twenty-seven experienced teachers to private competitors in the last three exam cycles. The departing teachers were not the lowest-performing ones; the schools they left were not poorly led. They were leaving for predictable cash, a school that paid termly bonuses, and, in several cases, on-site staff housing that ended a two-hour commute.

The implication for the sector is uncomfortable. If the private salary band continues to outpace government adjustment, the schools serving Uganda’s broadest base of pupils will lose precisely the experienced staff that long-run results depend on. We model the trajectory below and the levers, allowances, retention bonuses, transfer policy, that the data says actually slow it down.