By Amoto Dennis
As teachers prepare to report to their respective schools on 28th September, private schools in Northeastern Kenya are bound to loose teachers.
A survey carried out by Education News reveals that teachers who previously taught in private schools might not get back to their respective places of work.
When schools were closed in March to avert the spread of coronavirus, teachers in private schools were forced to eke out living from side hustles as the management of respective schools couldn’t afford to pay them.
As the Covid-19 takes toll on the economy, teachers in private schools resorted to other means of surviving for instance; bodaboda riding, construction work and domestic house works.
“Following the old adage ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ I couldn’t just sit and wait for manna from heaven,’’ says Beatrice Mutinga, previously a teacher but later got herself a position in a local private clinic.
Beatrice said that she is presently earning more than what she used to earn while teaching.
A similar story is narrated by Lydia Gathoni who previously worked as secondary school teacher earning about Sh20, 000 but since the teaching well ran dry, she resorted to putting up a horticultural kiosk where she earns at least Sh.1, 000 per day.
Jeff Mwembe on the other hand settled on boda boda riding where he affirmed to that he is getting better pay contrary to what he previously earned as a teacher.
However, Education News survey notes that quite a number of school boys have resorted to bodaboda riding while girls in the neighbouring coastal region have undergone FGM and many have gotten married.
Given that CBC is an elephant in the room as teachers are not comfortable handling it and now that tutors have been long out of school, their ability to shepherd this crush program remains a six million dollar question.
