By Fredrick Odiero
Teachers from Nyando in Kisumu County have hit out at Kimilili Member of Parliament Didmus Barasa for claiming teachers are taking advantage of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Led by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Nyando branch chairman Fredrick Kibwana, the teachers said the MP poured scorn on them by claiming chicken were being wiped out from homes as teachers demanded for the birds for practicals.
They said his utterances represented a dark view of their profession.
The tutors were reacting to claims attributed to the MP that teachers were depleting the chicken population in homes as children delivered them to school in droves as part of CBC experiments.
It is alleged the legislator accused teachers of making the curriculum expensive by demanding very many things from parents for purposes of learning.
However, Kibwana said in a statement that when the idea of CBC was introduced five years ago, it was not Parliament but teachers who warned the society about its cost implications.
He said Parliament, where Barasa sat, quickly gave CBC the green light despite protests from education stakeholders.
“Today, the chicken has come home to roost, and the donkey of society must carry its weight on its back,” he said.
Kibwana lamented that the Kenyan teacher is leading learners in cleaning markets in the name of CBC, which should have been done by the authorities.
Meanwhile as they earn peanuts, he said, Barasa and his ilk sit in a ‘state-of-the-art, air conditioned, red-carpeted Parliament for twelve days a month to earn millions and have control of other hundreds of millions in CDF’.
He said legislators received millions in mortgage, car grants, and transport mileage while the Kenyan teacher is chocking under the grip of a dying economy, and living in the slums and in inaccessible villages in order that Kenya may have more Barasas in future who would turn on them with unimaginable disregard.
The official said teachers still held their pride in producing the same people and arming them with the language with which to abuse them.
Nevertheless, Kibwana said teachers are contented since they can afford necessities for their families when they go back home in the evening.
“In fact, our place in the castle makes a majority of us allergic to the prestigious foods like Barasa’s chicken,” he said.
Whether it was sarcasm or truth of the matter, the teachers had made their point.
