By AUGUSTINE ODUOR
The fear of classrooms without teachers looms large after last-ditch talks to avert a strike called by two unions collapsed.
By Thursday evening the Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had retreated to their hardline positions.
Also refusing to budge were the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).
Teachers Service Commission bosses led by the Secretary, Gabriel Lengoiboni, were Thursday holed up in a day-long meeting whose outcome, however, was to send warning letters to the two teachers’ unions asking them to withdraw the “inappropriate” strike.
Knut and Kuppet officials earlier left a meeting with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) fuming because it did not yield a solution.
Instead, the commission told the unions categorically that it would not negotiate with them over salaries and referred them to the TSC.
But TSC reiterated the earlier position taken by Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo: That negotiations cannot take place until the TSC is restructured in accordance with the new TSC Act.
The unions accused the Government of “not doing enough to engage with teachers”, and vowed they would press on with the strike on Monday, when schools re-open for third term.
Last evening The Standard established that TSC wrote to the unions asking them to withdraw the strike notice to give room for proper talks that would, however, only resume once the commission is restructured.In the letters, Mr Lengoiboni termed the strike “inappropriate”, saying the commission is hamstrung to act because of the many legal and procedural challenges.
He cited section 13 of the new TSC Act that provides for the establishment of a committee that shall engage the unions in salary talks.
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