Kenya National Union of Teachers Teso Branch has lauded President William Ruto for the 10 per cent salary hike to teachers across the country.
Addressing the press at the KNUT offices in Amagoro on Tuesday, the union Executive Secretary Ekasiba Geoffrey said the offer that was acceptable and embraced by the KNUT Secretary General will boost the morale of teachers.
“As teachers, we better take half a loaf than full bread. We plead with the President to give teachers the remaining 50% salary hike when the economy stabilizes,” he said.
Ekasiba told teachers to appreciate the little offer they have received from the National Government, urging them to double their efforts to improve education standards in the region.
The Executive Secretary regretted that understaffing, especially for deputy head teachers, has taken a toll in Teso urging the TSC to intervene and correct the anomaly.
“As for head teachers, at least every school in the branch has one, seconded by the TSC. Most schools lack deputy head teachers with Angurai zone experiencing a shortage of 14, Kolanya Zone 11, Amagoro 9, and Amukura 16,” he said.
On 25 August 2023, the TSC advertised over 36,000 vacancies for chief principals, senior principals, principals, deputy principals, senior lecturers, senior masters, secondary teacher 1, head teachers, deputy head teachers and senior teachers.
Ekasiba noted that most teachers from the branch who had sent their application for promotion received regret letters on the grounds that they were not able to meet the threshold based on their job groups.
“It was not the fault of the teachers who could not move to the next job groups since it stagnated. The demands are high that would lock out many teachers,” he said, adding that their employer should promote teachers based on their performance and not job groups.
He added: “I urge TSC to promote Deputy Headteachers from Teso region instead of outsourcing them. The branch has enough manpower to fill those positions.”
The Executive Secretary noted that most teachers from Bungoma who were teaching in Teso region had returned to their home county without replacement, thus leading to understaffing and affecting performance.
Ekasiba said there are some teachers in Western Region who want to be transferred back to Teso but faced bottlenecks, urging such teachers to seek authority from the Western Regional Director of Education in Kakamega.
By Gilbert Achieng
Get more stories from our website: Education News
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us through: editor@educationnews.
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper For timely updates.
