The Kenya Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) is pushing for three levels of schools in the country to resolve the challenges facing the junior school and Competence Based Education (CBE) system.
Speaking after attending a seminar for KUPPET officials drawn from Kilifi, Tana River and Lamu Counties at a Malindi hotel in Kilifi County on Thursday, the national chairman of the union and Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba said that the current confusion where KUPPET and Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) were scrambling for the Junior Secondary School teachers could only be solved by creation of another layer in the school system.
“We wanted junior school to be part of secondary schools and we wrote letters and delivered to every office including the presidency but we did not succeed on that because of many issues we know but we must change strategy for junior school to stand,” he said.
ALSO READ:
Equity CEO champions digital skills and innovation in talks at Alliance, Kenya High
He further suggested that for the schools to stand, possibly it could be an independent school so that we have three levels of schools that we have the primary school, the junior school and then we have the higher school and that will enable the linkage between the secondary school teachers who are the JSS to link up and it will be very easy.”
The union also threatened to revert back to strikes if the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) fails to sit down with them on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“The government must invite teachers for a CBA negotiation since they used to occur after every two years but now it occurs after four years and without CBA, chaos will come back to the teaching sector where every December there was a strike and the bait would be marking of examinations,” he said.
Milemba also explored on the issue of holding two offices including the chairman KUPPET and MP telling members that it was very important for the union to have representatives in government to push the agenda of teachers.
ALSO READ:
South Rift professionals warn of looming collapse of public universities
“Sometimes I see members say that I’m a member of parliament and if we have a union that doesn’t have an MP, what about when I grow and be a Cabinet Secretary for Education or the President because I have ambitions? I will treat the fraternity with dignity because I’m one of you,” he said.
The Secretary General of KUPPET, Akello Misori urged members to show solidarity and stay firm to the cause of the union.
“We must show elements of solidarity in action that when we have issues related to our work, we can solve them. The union is not only about strikes since strikes are tools of last resort. What happens is that we must negotiate our way out with the principals of our institutions because they are also our members and some are chairmen of our branches,” he said.
BY NEHEMIAH OKWEMBAH
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
>>> Click here to stay up-to-date with trending regional stories
>>> Click here to read more informed opinions on the country’s education landscape
>>> Click here to stay ahead with the latest national news.
