Agency asked to release teachers' job rating report

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) has been asked to release the teachers’ job evaluation report.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion said this would enable teachers and their employer to sign a proper collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that would contain basic salaries of teachers.

He said though teachers were not opposed to performance contracting, they had noted there was a mismatch in the performance contracting and the first phase of it should be converted into a national pilot.

“We shall then together critique and improve the performance tool,” the KNUT boss suggested.

Distribute laptops

Nonetheless, we are saying that performance contracting would not deliver quality education but quality teachers, tools and learning environment,” Mr Sossion said.

Speaking during a graduation ceremony for 500 primary school teachers at Kericho Teachers Training College, Sossion asked the government to distribute laptops to trainee primary school teachers.

He said it was illogical for the Jubilee government to give Standard One pupils the gadgets yet teachers who are supposed to teach them are not computer literate.

“The Government must give all trainee primary school teachers laptops so that they can learn how to teach information communication technology (ICT) skills upon graduation. The Government priorities on educations doesn’t make sense,” Sossion said.

PRIORITISE EDUCATION

He added that by 2019, all teachers would be equipped with ICT skills and they would be applying the knowledge in their teaching.

 “The (use of a) blackboard and pieces of chalk will have to come to an end in this country,” Sossion said.

Kericho Knut Executive Secretary Stanley Mutai criticised the standard gauge railway project, saying the Government should have made education a priority.

“How many Kenyans are going to use the standard gauge railway when the country’s children are not well educated because there is a shortage of at least 85,000 teachers in the country?” he asked.

“The illiteracy rate in the country is going up instead of going down,” he added.