Teachers failed to report to work on Monday as last ditch talks to avert a national strike flopped, throwing schools into uncertainty at the start of the third term during which students will be sitting critical examinations.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) said their members would stay away from classrooms until their demand that 28,000 teachers be employed on a permanent basis is met. (READ: Plan to hire 28,000 teachers hits snag)
“The strike is still on until when the government agrees to the conversion of 18,000 contractual teachers to permanent staff and the employment of 10,000 more in line with their strategic programme on education,” said Mr Wilson Sossion, the Knut chairman.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga had called a meeting between the ministries of Education and Labour, Knut and Kuppet officials to look for a way of averting the strike.
Following the collapse of the talks, the government asked for one week to review its position despite having insisted all along that it had no money to fulfil a promise made to the unions when they accepted that 18,000 teachers be employed on contract last year.
The strike paralysed learning across the country. Reports from Nyanza, Western, South Rift and Central Kenya indicated that students reported to school but there were no teachers to take them through lessons.
Mr Sossion said the government had acknowledged that the teachers’ grievances were genuine.
Education permanent secretary James ole Kiyiapi had earlier asked the unions to call off the strike as a solution was being sought. The teachers action comes at the beginning of the third and final term of the school year, in which both Form Four and Standard Eight candidates sit their national exams.
The umbrella bodies had met with the Budget committee of Parliament during their public fora which had agreed to have the Budget estimates revised to have Sh7.4 billion set aside to cater for the employment of teachers on contract, recruitment of new ones to bridge a deficit in the teacher/student ratio and streamlining of the early childhood education programme (ECD) for nursery schools.
However, the revised allocations did not provide for the hiring of teachers despite increases in the votes for the Department of Defence and for Parliament.
“The ECD programme requires Sh1.8 billion but the MPs saw it wise to allocate Sh2.4 billion for offsetting their outstanding tax dues,” said Mr Sossion.
Last week, the government released Sh5 billion for the free learning programme in primary and subsidised secondary education. The amount is largely used to buy learning materials in schools.
Unlike in past when salaries were at the heart of work boycotts by teachers, they are now rooting for the quality of education that has been hit by a worsening teacher/student ratio since the onset of free primary education in 2003.
Kenya’s teacher/student ratio has been deviating from the UN recommended 1/42 following a freeze to hiring under the World Bank driven structural adjustment programmes.
The government has been engaging graduate teachers on contract to minimise on statutory payments such as pension and health. The Teacher Service Commission (TSC) said that it was facing a shortage of 75,000 teachers. Several bodies have come out in support of the teachers’ strike including the Kenya Private Sector Alliance.
