By Azael Masese
Recognition of the country’s best teachers took a new dimension after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) rewarded the 2018 winners with saloon cars.
KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion said this is in appreciation of the exceptional contribution the teachers make to the country’s education system.
“We will do the same in future and would now target teachers in primary schools,” he promised.
Competition for Kenya’s best teachers is divided into three categories namely the Principal of the Year Award (POYA), Teacher of the Year Award (Toya) and the ICT Teacher of the Year Award (Itoya).The 2018 respective winners included Ramba Boys’ Principal James Okoyo from Siaya County, Elijah Ogoti of Tartar Girls, West Pokot and Maxwell Kayesi of Karuri High School, Kiambu County.
The three were presented with the awards during the union’s 61st Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) held at the Bomas of Kenya mid December, 2018.
Kenya’s best teachers are identified during the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) annual conference, usually held in Mombasa in June.
Supported by the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), other partners such as EKitabu, publishers and Centre of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Africa (Cemsatea) are roped in.
Asked if they will come up with their own way of identifying the best teachers, he said they will not reinvent the wheel but instead use the already existing structures.
“We will use the mechanisms employed by the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Service Commission to reward the best teachers,” noted Sossion.
This is the first time the union has rewarded the best teachers and might be another way of engaging its rival, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET), in some supremacy battle over the recruitment of members.
KNUT membership is largely drawn from primary schools while that of KUPPET comes from secondary schools and to some extent technical training institutions.
However, there is no clear delineation on who should join which union and those awarded, according to the union are its members.
