What next? Anxiety among parents and teachers as schools reopen

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut)Secretary General Wilson Sossion addresses the press at the union’s offices in Nairobi yesterday after meeting with a conciliation team appointed by the Labour CS in a bid to stop a looming teachers’ strike. [Edward Kiplimo,Standard]

A national teachers’ strike has compounded reigning confusion in the education sector over the rolling out of the new curriculum.

Yesterday, a meeting between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and a conciliator appointed by Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani to resolve the crisis failed to avert the strike.

When Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion emerged from the meeting with the team headed by labour relations expert Charles Maranga, he told the press: “There is no good news. The strike is still on whether the schools open or they don’t. Teachers will not be in school.”

After the meeting at Knut headquarters and attended by the union’s National Executive Council, the conciliation team left without briefing the press. One member however said without explaining that they had postponed the meeting.

The seven-man team is supposed to meet the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) tomorrow morning and in the afternoon hold a joint meeting with aggrieved parties.

During the closed-door meeting, the union gave its oral submissions and issued preconditions for any dialogue to take place.

“Teachers Service Commission must suspend forthwith the massive transfer (delocalisation) of teachers. This is a precondition for any dialogue to take place,” Sossion said.

Already, teachers in some parts of the country have backed the strike.

“We are ready to go on strike. We are telling teachers in Rift Valley that no stones will be left unturned until our demands are met,” said West Pokot Knut executive secretary Martin Sembelo.  

The transfer of 3,094 heads of primary and secondary schools across the country is one of the reasons Knut has called a strike.

A press statement issued by TSC head of communications Kihumba Kamotho indicated that following the expiry of the December 28 deadline for teachers who had been transferred to hand over, 88 per cent had complied.

“The handing over exercise started on December 20, 2018 across the country. By today , December 28, 2,750 or about  88 per cent of the heads of institutions had either handed over or taken over as per the commission’s timeline,” Kamotho said.

According to the TSC, the transfers were meant to address vacant positions left by teachers who had retired as well as deal with cases where heads and their deputies had been in one station for a long period.

Sossion said the suspension of the transfer was a directive from the President, which TSC has ignored.

Knut insisted that the teachers’ employer scraps performance contract, arguing that it was a foreign way of measuring performance inapplicable in teaching.

Pupils are also starting their academic year amid confusion over when and how the new competence based curriculum is to be rolled out.

On Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta apologised to Kenyans over the confusion caused by the postponement of the rollout and declared that the new system of education will be implemented next week.

“I apologise to all Kenyans for the confusion my government has created. The new curriculum must be implemented. It has been looked at again and again for four years. It is not something we want to implement overnight,” he said.

According to the President the new system expected to replace 8-4-4, which has been in existence since 1985, has been on trial for the last four years and the country has been spending Sh400 billion annually.

His apologies were prompted by the flip-flopping of Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed who first announced the postponement of the roll-out of the new curriculum.

According to Amina, the National Steering Committee had on December 15 resolved that the national rollout of the curriculum be put on hold so that teachers could be trained.

Her announcement was met with outrage by parents and the government, forcing the CS to rescind her decision on December 27 after meeting with relevant government agencies and stakeholders.

Consequently, she announced that the new curriculum would be rolled out nationally with effect from January 1, 2019 in pre-primary, grades 1 to 3.

[Additional reporting by Irissheel Shanzu and Munene Kamau]