Teachers in private schools have protested failure by their employers to pay them salaries since March following closure of learning institutions over Covid-19.
Kenya National Union of Private Schools Teachers (KNUPST) Secretary General Dan Khasiani said teachers in most private schools are suffering since institutions stopped remitting salaries months ago.
Mr Khasiani said the issue is set to get worse since there will only be a gradual re-opening of schools starting September 2020, adding that the government should as a matter of urgency provide an economic stimulus package so teachers can sustain themselves and their families.
“By the time schools open, these teachers shall have gone for six months without a salary! This shall therefore mean that these teachers shall lack basic needs for all that duration,” said the Secretary General.
He said despite producing the top students in the national exams over the years, private school teachers and their colleagues in board of management work in hard, horrendous and difficult conditions.
He regretted that majority of private schools have turned their backs on their own teachers.
Already private schools have appealed to the government to provide them with grants in order to sustain their wage bills of over 288,000 teaching and non-teaching staff.
Owners of private schools are seeking about Sh7 billion from the government for this purpose.
According to Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) chief executive Peter Ndoro, lack of liquidity has heavily impeded schools’ ability to meet critical monthly commitments.
According to Educational statistics by 2019, there are over 10,400 private primary schools with a population of 2.14 million children, and over 1,627 private secondary schools with a student population of 271,618 children totaling to over 2,400,000 children in private schools with a constant population growth at all levels over the last 5 years.