By LUCAS NG’ASIKE
TURKANA: The level of education in Turkana County may deteriorate if the resignation of 18 teachers is not addressed. The teachers reportedly quit their jobs to grab County government portfolios.
The teachers have been absorbed into the County government as county executives, chief officers and county administrators.
Parents who have children in the affected schools said the exodus of teachers for other jobs will jeopardise education standards.
“Our biggest worry is that most of the children in the affected schools will suffer due to low academic standards since they will lack adequate personnel to teach them. This situation will compromise the academic standards in the County,” said Jennifer Akiru, a parent in one of the schools.
Locals claimed that teachers who resigned months ago are still on the Teacher Services Commission’s payroll.
“We want TSC to start a serious audit of teachers who quit teaching for county Jobs. We suspect some teachers are still in the TSC payroll and yet they left their teaching career for other employment,” said John Ekidor, a local human rights activist.
Mr Ekidor said they were afraid they would lose majority of the teachers without replacement, adding that the situation will negatively affect learning in the region.
“The fate of our children hangs in the balance because most teachers in the region have started to look for greener pastures elsewhere since they earn peanuts in the national Government,” said Ekidor.
Turkana County director of education Nicodemus Anyang said this year’s enrolment was short of 12,000 pupils. Dr Anyang said efforts were being made to replace the teachers in the next three weeks. He, however, denied claims that some teachers who quit their jobs were still active in the TSC payroll. He said most of the teachers who ditched the teaching career were cleared by TSC and their salaries stopped.
