Coronavirus: Ugandan teachers 'turn to casual jobs'

Some Ugandan teachers in private schools have turned to making coffins and bricks to earn a living after schools closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Daily Monitor reports.

Some of the teachers are quoted as saying that they had turned to casual jobs such as riding boda boda (motorbike taxis), carpentry, selling food, charcoal and domestic work.

The country closed all its schools in March as part of measures to control the spread of coronavirus.

The chairman of private schools owners group, Hasadu Kirabira, has appealed to the government to support the teachers.

A state minister, however, told the paper that they cannot bail them out since many sectors of the economy had been affected.

Private schools depend on fees as their main source of income meaning they cannot keep their teachers unlike those in public schools.