Privatise education and pay fees for poor

We congratulate the teachers’ unions, Kuppet and Knut, for calling off the five-week strike.

Having pupils and students stay home for more than two months has not been an easy task for parents. Many parents would rather have their children at school than be idle at home and hence vulnerable to drug abuse, unwanted pregnancies, STDs, lawlessness, among other vices.

As the dust settles, it is a time to take deep assessment of the full impact of the teachers’ strike so as to avoid such unwanted eventualities in future.

A responsible Government must give us the number of children who went back to school after the strike, those who dropped out, those who ended up in early marriages or got under age employment opportunities. It is important to note that those most affected by the strike are the poor parents, most of whose children are in public schools.

As the schools are now running, reports on the ground suggest that there are no enough funds to run the same schools that have not been in session.

It’s time the Government did an in-depth audit to seek ways of taking control of education affairs. This cannot be done with the type of arrogance depicted by officers at the Teachers’ Service Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

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The President’s address to the nation in which he alluded to the fact that public schools are not performing is unacceptable. Public schools take all kinds of students, classes are overcrowded, there are no enough funds to carry out educational activities smoothly, teachers are demotivated, parents and their children are not interested, among other shortcomings.

There are inadequate teachers in public schools and the Government should employ more to enhance learning. The Government should privatise education and pay school fees for the poor.