Nairobi, Kenya: The two teachers’ unions have rejected a school fees report by a task force that proposes the recruitment of intern teachers by the Government.
They have also opposed the sharing of teachers between schools, increasing teachers’ lessons per week and creation of a new authority to manage school fees implementation.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) accused the 21-member team of ‘going beyond their mandate’ and coming up with a raft of proposals that will ‘eventually not reduce the cost of education’.
Speaking separately, the leadership of the two unions said some recommendations in the report were ‘sneaked in without consent of the stakeholders’ who participated in the survey.
“We are not challenging the school figures proposed by the team but they took advantage of it to insert unpalatable recommendations to offend teachers,” said Kuppet national chairman Omboko Milemba.
He termed a proposal to hire teacher interns “irresponsible and unacceptable”, adding that the proposal was not part of what they discussed.
Kuppet and Knut were part of the institutions that took part in the school fees review report.
Retrogressive
“No teachers’ union would sit on a committee that recommends employment of interns. This is retrogressive and touches on teachers’ terms of service,” said Mr Milemba.
The new report produced by the team led by former Education Assistant Minister Kilemi Mwiria wants teacher interns to be recruited with a view to absorption by Government after two years of practice to bridge the widening teacher gap.
Dr Mwiria said the report would be finalised by the end of the month, and the recommendations made during the stakeholders’ validation meeting.
Knut national chairman Mudzo Nzili rejected sharing of teachers and said more teachers must be recruited.
The unions rejected the proposed teacher pupil ratio of 1:32, saying the figures were maliciously calculated.
“This should be based purely on curriculum-based establishment and not simple mathematics,” said Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori.
The report proposes control of teacher trainees’ admissions to match demands and conversion of ‘a majority’ of teacher training institutions to secondary schools.
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Unions have opposed creation of a new independent body, the Free Secondary Implementation Authority, to oversee implementation of the fees report.
The two unions said they “will reject the report until ‘vital issues’ not addressed by the report are looked into”.
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