Economy

Uhuru launches teacher volunteer programme

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President Uhuru Kenyatta. PHOTO | FILE

President Uhuru Kenyatta will today launch a volunteer programme that will see 30,000 unemployed university graduates teach for one year in primary schools. The programme to be introduced in Garissa County will ease the biting teacher shortage that stood at 90,000 even as teacher unions express reservations on the internship plan.

The graduates will earn a stipend of Sh6,000 based on an earlier Press notice, pay that pales in comparison to the average salary of 20,000 for primary school teachers.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has previously questioned the programme, saying the government should instead offer permanent employment to the many qualified but unemployed teachers.

“There are thousands who have qualified as primary school teachers, yet they are still in the cold. Why not employ them in our schools and have those who went to university for different courses do their jobs elsewhere?” Knut chairman Mudzo Nzili said recently.

The internship plan will see the graduates posted to 15,000 schools outside their home counties. This is meant to expose them to different cultures and enhance national cohesion.

“Two volunteers will be placed in each participating primary school and will receive a modest living stipend of Sh6,000 per month,” said an advertisement in the dailies last month.

The selected volunteers will undergo a three-week intensive residential training aimed at preparing them for placement. The pilot batch of 200 has already been trained.

The volunteer programme comes at a time when teachers have threatened to go on strike should the government fail to increase their pay and allowances. The State has maintained that teacher demands are unsustainable as it seeks to cut the public sector wage bill.

READ: Knut gives State till Sept 30 to table pay deal

The teacher shortage is the product of the free primary education that has seen enrolment soar in the last decade.