By Hilton Mwabili
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has outlined a raft of proposals including salary increment to motivate teachers who will be attached to Junior Secondary School (JSS), saying that this will improve the quality of education in all public schools.
While addressing the 18th KEPSHA annual conference at the Sheikh Zayed Children Welfare Centre in Mombasa, KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu called for handsome remuneration for head teachers who will be tasked with the additional responsibilities of handling the JSS programmes in their primary schools.
“There is a clause in the previous CBA that is not addressed and therefore as a union, we shall be seeking a salary increment in line with terms and conditions of service,” said Oyuu.
Oyuu demanded that the increments be implemented by January 2023 to set the momentum of JSS.
“Now that you have domiciled the junior secondary school in primary schools, we want to know what is in store for the teachers in terms of their welfare as they take up these responsibilities. Head teachers are now going to be overburdened and this calls for a review of terms,” Oyuu said.
The Union also wants the Teacher Service commission (TSC) to effect promotions of teachers who have stagnated in one stage as well as promoting those in acting capacity at various positions.
He urged the government to promote head teachers in Grade D1, saying their career progression had stagnated for a long time.
“About the Equalization Fund, I would like to know the progress of its implementation,” he said.
Oyuu demanded for specialized capitation for special schools needs to cater for the attention demanded by the institutions in their quest to implement the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
“We need special capitation for special needs schools. This has been our request for a long time and no one seems to address it,” Oyuu noted.
Oyuu further asked the Ministry of Education to cushion teachers from the wrath of mental health that he said has taken a toll on them as a result of hardships in line of duty. He said many have indulged into unhealthy habits such as drug abuse because of frustrations.
“When a teacher who is regarded as a role model commits suicide in the village, it’s not a good thing, therefore we need teachers plight to be addressed so as to avert such deaths,” said Oyuu.
TSC boss Nancy Macharia announced that at least 30,000 teachers will be employed by January in line with the President’s directive.
In the speech read on her behalf by TSC Director of Human Resource and Development Julius Olayo, Macharia said that so far 229,000 primary school teachers had been trained on CBC while 60,000 of their secondary school counterparts were undergoing training ahead of JSS rollout.
At the same time, she said TSC will train 63,396 more teachers on online learning and ensure they are technology savvy. She said teachers should stay up to date with technology advancements so that they can be able to deliver relevant education.
