One can teach other people's children, yet theirs can't get a basic education.
This mostly happens in the so-called big schools.
It happened in a school where my friend worked.
A story I can never forget.
One of the teachers was in the classroom, teaching with all her heart.
Her voice was steady. Her chalk moved across the blackboard like nothing was wrong.
But inside… she was shattering.
Just minutes before, she had watched her only son walk out through the school gate.
Not because he was sick.
Not because he was in trouble.
But because she couldn’t pay his school fees.
This was the same school where she had taught for many years.
The same walls where she had trained hundreds of other people’s children to read, write, and dream big.
She had begged, borrowed, and sacrificed to keep her boy in class.
But her salary was too small, and the debt had grown too big.
The management said, “Madam, we have tried. We can’t keep him without payment.”
And just like that… her son, her pride, her only child, was walking home with his bag hanging low, his eyes filled with shame.
And still, Mrs. Akello had to stand in front of another class.
She taught them fractions while her child was missing the very lesson he loved.
She smiled at them, but her eyes told a different story, a story of a mother’s quiet pain.
I stood at the doorway that day, watching her.
And something inside me broke.
I kept thinking: How can a woman give the world so much, and yet be unable to give her child the same gift?
After school, I told her, “From this month, I’ll pay part of his fees. He will not miss school again.”
She froze. Then the tears came.
Not the gentle kind…
They rolled down heavily, like the rain in August.
She held my hands and kept saying, “God will remember you… God will remember you…”
But the truth is, this isn’t just her story.
It is the story of many teachers in Uganda.
We build the dreams of a nation, yet we cannot afford to build our own.
We teach doctors, engineers, governors, even presidents… yet our pockets stay empty.
Dear Ugandans,
When will the ones who carry the chalk be able to carry their children’s future with pride?
When will we stop pushing teachers to the ground and start lifting them like the treasures they are?
If you are reading this,
Say a prayer for every teacher who teaches with a smile,
but cries when no one is watching.
May our reward not only wait for heaven.
May it find us here on this very earth, not here after.
Dear teachers, The only gift a teacher can give a fellow teacher is to teach their children with all their heart.
Most teachers have turned to begging simply because 99% of our time is taken up by other people. By the time we think of doing our things, it's too late.
Most good and hardworking teachers end up miserable simply because being employed is their only option.
We can change the story by thinking otherwise.
Teaching alone can not satisfy our needs, but rather enslave us.
Being poor today is not a problem, but dying poor is.
Teachers can contest any political position. If you can, do it.
FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY.
KANGAVE MUDI
National chairperson, Private Teachers Platform, Uganda
Tel. +256757525254
