The collateral damage in just-ended teachers’ strike

From left is Akelo Misori of KUPPET, KNUT secretary general Wilson Sossion and KNUT treasurer John Matiangi outside the court after yesterday's hearing. 5/10/2015 [PHOTO/GEORGE NJUNGE/STANDARD]

It is unbelievable that 51 years after uhuru, school children can stay home for more than a month as Kenyan elites fight in court.

Those who understand the Kenyan psyche know that the children were not that unhappy; school has never been popular with most them. Now they have an excuse for their failures in life: teachers’ strike. This is despite the fact that a KCSE or KCPE certificate has no column for excuses.

The consequence of this ego contest among the elite will not be felt immediately; it will be like a slow puncture.

Serious or disciplined

We are teaching the next generation that you do not have to be serious or disciplined. Children learn more through actions than what you tell them. They can see their mentors, the teachers, carrying sufurias along the streets.

The high esteem teachers used to command is getting eroded, with consequences on discipline in class. Teachers know indiscipline has become a big problem with the end of corporal punishment.

In a country where unemployment is high, employers are looking for the smallest excuse not to hire you. They could always argue that you went through public schools that are not serious. That breeds coded discrimination.

I am personally scared by the rising disdain for education by Kenyan children. The only other place I found such dislike for education is in America’s Deep South, particularly in Mississippi, which has high poverty levels.

The high unemployment rate among African Americans has a lot to do with this disdain for education. The same pattern is observed in South Africa where blacks kept out of school during the apartheid era, and now lack the skills needed in post-apartheid South Africa.

The success of Asians both in Kenya and elsewhere has a lot to do with their respect and high regard for education and job skills. Did you see their children loitering around during the strike?

The world could also blacklist our graduates; after all, everyone read about the strike in Kenya.

The bigger tragedy is that if teachers are not paid, they will remain ‘on strike’, doing what they think is equivalent to the money they are currently paid. The teachers’ low morale, coupled with the fact that few chose education as their first-choice degree course, may make public schooling a drag on national productivity.

With time, not being serious might become a part of our culture; the same way I found being academically serious in Mississippi is considered ‘acting white’.

And with constant strikes, Kenyans will lose faith in public schools. Currently, less than 30 per cent of Kenyan children are in private schools. That percentage could go up, leading to fewer teachers joining unions.

I have argued that the Kenyan elite long left public schools, and more will leave, leading to a ‘one country, two nations’ class system, which is not good for social harmony. How do poor children feel when they see those from well-off families going to school as they idle at home?

Why can’t the Government give children vouchers and let their parents chose a school? If they choose private schools, parents can top up the difference. This will close the class divide and increase economic diversity.

The economic cost of leaving behind the vast majority of Kenyan children without skills critical to employment and economic growth should concern all of us. A recent World Bank report supporting this fact should be a wake up call.

While the elite can enjoy their wealth in secluded places, the hard reality, often jolted by crime and other vices, will not escape them. This reality means that freedom becomes an illusion. Kenyans could also leave the country for other nations perceived as more stable, particularly emotionally.

The long teachers’ strike was different from other strikes; it affected almost everyone. Teachers, for example, drive rural economies because they are the few salaried employees with reliable sources of income. They create demand for housing, transport, food, wives and husbands. I am sure the GDP growth rate will feel the effect of the just-ended strike.

One could ask what schoolchildren were doing during the undeserved holiday. Will there be a spike in births nine months after the strike started?

If elephants fight, the grass suffers. In this case, the grass is our children. If they fail to acquire a solid education and job skills because they were left on their own or are taught by demoralised teachers, we all pay the price. Such skills are the secret behind the Asian Tigers’ rise.

National Competitiveness

While that child who languished at home may not have been yours, you will one day feel the effect of it, either through incurring extra expenses to train him or her, lower productivity, falling national competitiveness or hiring more police officer to maintain order.

There is no doubt that teachers, like anyone else, have a right to fight for their interests.

But it is the nexus of politics and egos that made the strike so devastating. The long-term damage from it far outstrips the money teachers would have been paid. Unfortunately, teachers, like our children, are pawns in the political games involving the Government and Opposition.

In a country already suffering from the ravages of terrorism, flight of tourists and competition for investors, we need to return to reason in resolving labour disputes. We should not make strikes the new normal.

The writer is senior lecturer, University of Nairobi School of Business. [email protected]