Transport, housing allowances proposed for private school teachers

A new proposal is being delivered to the Addis Ababa Education Bureau for discussion and ratification, asking the government to allow transportation and housing allowances for private school teachers who work in Addis Ababa.
If the government approves it, school owners will add transportation and housing allowance money to teachers’ salaries.
Currently only government teachers get allowances for things like houses. Teachers’ entire salary is subjected to income taxes.
The study is being conducted by the Addis Ababa Private School Association. It will ask the government about the curriculum, the fee system, the current working rules towards private schools and to allow private schools to be represented at the highest decision-making level in education policy.
“The extra money for increasing teacher salaries is subjected to taxes and at the end the teachers don’t see take much home pay. But if there is a house and transport allowance then it is not taxed and the teachers will get a better income which will help to reduce turnover rates” a source told Capital.
The source added that questionnaires are being distributed to the all private schools in Addis Ababa to get feedback on the proposal which should be submitted to the government by the end of the Ethiopian year. The study is also examining the proper framework for licensing international schools and working procedures.
Medium private schools charge from 10,000 to 120,000 birr per year in addition to the cost of teaching books for their pupil. The range of private teacher salaries are 3,000 to 10,000 birr.
A majority of private schools have told parents that next year’s school fees will cost more due to the inflation of birr, the cost of educational materials, and the increase of teacher salaries.
Last year Addis Ababa Education Bureau closed 59 schools in the city for unqualified teachers, no libraries, laboratories, sports fields, poor toilets and sleeping rooms for the children. Among the closed schools 34 of them were Kindergartens, 14 Primary and nine High Schools. Currently, there are 1,631 private schools in Addis Ababa among these 919 are Kindergartens,569 are primary and 143 are High Schools.