Teachers will go on a national strike from October 17 if the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) fails to drop some policies they claim are being implemented without consulting their union.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion Friday said they will call for the nationwide teachers’ strike and paralyse national exams until TSC agrees to demands from the teachers which call for eradication of the “punitive policies that are hurting the education sector”.
Mr Sossion revealed that union officials had met with TSC during a five-day meeting at Sawela Lodge in Naivasha where the employer promised to implement issues raised by the teachers.
DELOCALISATION
“Key among the issues we raised was a call to TSC to rescind delocalisation, the new curriculum, recognise teachers’ career progression, teachers’ promotions and appraisal policies,” said Mr Sossion.
Speaking at Amagoro Primary School in Teso North during celebrations to mark the World Teachers Day on Friday, Mr Sossion said the policies, which include delocalisation and appraisal for teachers do not comply with the country’s Constitution.
He asked the Kenya National Examinations Council to prepare itself to postpone the national examinations for Class Eight and Form Four candidates if the stalemate between TSC and the union will not have been solved by October 17.
“If TSC will heed our demands, we shall comply, but if they will choose to defy us, we shall blow the whistle and call all teachers including the examiners to industrial action so that national examinations will be interrupted,” Mr Sossion said.
POSTPONE EXAMS
He said that the national examinations, which re to kick off later this month, are threatened and wants them postponed.
Knut National Chairman Wycliffe Omucheyi said TSC has no other option but to heed to calls from the union against delocalisation, failure to promote teachers who have qualified and stop asking teachers to sign the appraisal forms if national exams have to be conducted smoothly.
“Let the employer know that all teachers are facing the same problems and when the whistle will be blown, they will all come out and down their tools,” said Mr Omucheyi.
He said Kenyan teachers had nothing to celebrate about on the World Teachers Day because they were facing frustrations from the government and were demoralised.
Mr Omucheyi noted that Kenya failed to meet the theme of the day – “Right to Education Means Right to a Qualified Teacher” – because teachers in the country are living in abject poverty after spending their income to pursue higher education yet their qualifications end up not being recognised by the employer.
PROMOTIONS
He regretted that teachers are selling their property and taking loans to finance their education yet TSC is only giving them acknowledgment letters instead of promoting them.
He decried that while both primary and secondary schools are faced with a shortage of 104,000 teachers, TSC is not employing teachers who are graduating from colleges.
Mr Omucheyi further noted that TSC is yet to employ 11,000 teachers as directed by the National Treasury when it allocated Sh5 billion in the last budget.
He noted that the country is likely to face acute shortage of teachers, further saying that the government is discouraging learners from becoming teachers when it denies teachers who qualify from colleges the opportunity to get employed.
QUALITY EDUCATION
“As a union, we want each Kenyans child to access quality education from a trained and qualified teacher who is well-enumerated and remunerated by our employer,” Mr Omucheyi told participants at the meeting which brought together union members from across the country.
Mr Sossion called on the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers to join hands with Knut in fighting for the rights of teachers, saying that for the teachers to deliver quality education, the sector must be united.
“When one trade union is sleeping on the same bed with the oppressor to frustrate efforts by another union to deliver teachers from harassment of the employer, it becomes difficult. When we move and demand in unity, they will provide,” said Mr Sossion.
Mr Sossion now wants Parliament to move a motion to discuss TSC which he claims has messed up the education system in the country by imposing untenable policies on teachers.