|
|
| A Knut meeting has failed to end the planned teachers’ strike. [Photo: File/Standard] |
By Augustine Oduor and Silah Koskei
Kenya: A meeting to lay ground for a teacher’s nationwide strike over promotion of 53,000 teachers has been slated for Monday. Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) top officials said the union’s National Steering Committee will meet even as parents make plans to send their children to school.
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion said the union has not received any formal letter from the government on promotion of the teachers.
“We have seen it in the media that they want us to dialogue. But we have not been approached officially,” he said.
Mr Sossion said the union wrote to the government over the pending promotions. Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said Friday that the government and unions will sit to discuss the promotions issue, noting that there is no money set aside towards the same.
The Treasury only allocated Sh600 million to the Teacher Service Commission (TSC) towards promotion of teachers in this financial year against the required Sh4 billion.
Meet demands
This means that TSC has a deficit of some Sh3.4 billion to carry out the exercise that Knut now says may ‘plunge the education sector into chaos.’ Knut said over 53,000 teachers have graduated from recognised universities in the country but have not been dully compensated.
TSC secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni said he would comment on the issue next week. “Let us talk about that issue next week,’ he said. The looming strike is likely to disrupt the school calendar this first term if the government and Knut fail to agree.
Meanwhile, Knut has demanded a quality assurance report from the ministry of education with reports over 10,000 pupils scored below 100 marks in the just released KCPE results. “There is a quality assurance department at the ministry. What do these people do in that office? We want to know because we have never seen any report from that office,” said Sossion.
Mohammed Mwinyipembe , is the acting Director Quality Assurance and Standards, at the ministry.Sossion said it is pointless to blame teachers every time results are released yet some department has the whole year to plan for quality.
“The results you have seen are all efforts of teachers but we are yet to feel the impact of the quality assurance department,” he said. North Rift Kenya National Union of Teachers officials said they have marshaled teachers for the planned strike if the government does not allocate funds for promotion of staff.
The officials maintain that their demands should be met saying that most teachers have incurred huge expenses seeking further studies and should be given promotions. Josphat Serem, the Knut National Executive Council member revealed that a nationwide strike is inevitable in order to champion for the rights of qualified teachers who deserve promotions.
“We shall reconvene for a meeting any moment to strategise on how we shall mobilise staff for a mother of all strikes when schools reopen,” he said.
Eldoret West Knut ExecutiveSecretary Kipchumba Arusei said the government is taking the efforts of teachers for a ride by failing to provide an amicable plan on how promotions should be conducted.
“Teachers have also been rewarded promotions in the previous governments and we are worried why the Jubilee government wants to deny us our right,” he said.
Trans Nzoia Knut branch executive secretary Reuben Makhino said teachers in his region are ready for the strike and are only waiting for official communication from the union before downing their tools.
“This government is not different from the previous regimes, before they were voted in, they had promises of bettering the lives of Kenyans but the current situation is opposite,” he said.
His Elgeyo/Marakwet counterpart John Cheberi called on top officials to stay put and ensure that teachers gain from their struggles. TSC has maintained that promotions are guided by provisions of existing schemes that include, scheme of service for graduate and non- graduate teachers as well as that of technical teachers and lecturers.
