- Pascal Mwandambo captures the anxiety and humour surrounding preparations for an anticipated national teachers’ strike.
- He reflects on teachers’ grievances, including promotions, hardship allowances, contracts and delayed school capitation.
- Mwandambo blends satire with school-life frustrations as staff await the union’s final decision on industrial action.
It’s been a fortnight now since the school reopened after the untimely closure following the fire incident in which school property, whose exact value has not been determined, was destroyed.
Though normal learning has resumed, anxiety is still high since we are not sure who the real culprits are and what they may be planning to do next.
However, we have on our radar two major suspects: a Form Three student popularly known as Hamas and his Form Two accomplice, who calls himself Chairman Mao Setung.
The two students have been mentioned on several occasions in matters of indiscipline, including cases of bullying, which the school administration has been struggling to eliminate, but with little success.
So, when the issue of an impending national teachers’ strike came up, it caused more anxiety and confusion, especially for our principal, Obote, as challenges of running the school continue to mount, particularly in the wake of delayed capitation to the institution.
However, we took consolation in the fact that, unlike the fire incident which affected only our school, the national teachers’ strike would affect all schools, and whatever consequences followed would be felt in institutions countrywide.
Immediately the issue of the strike came up, Obote called a staff meeting to deliberate on the pertinent matter.
Even though he claimed that he would not appear at the frontline during the strike, he was ready to give us moral support where it would be needed.
On a light note, it would have been quite amusing if our principal joined other teachers in the strike so that I could see how he would duck tear gas and riot police batons should push come to shove.
In any case, some of the issues teachers were agitating for were of direct benefit to administrators like himself, for instance, delayed capitation, which is becoming a thorn in the flesh of school management.
Teachers list grievances
Other issues prompting the nationwide strike include a government proposal to begin hiring teachers on contracts, payment of hardship allowances and delayed promotions.
The newly elected county executive secretary of our teachers’ umbrella union, the Kenya United Teachers Association (KUTA), Kokoto Kavu, has been foaming at the mouth while warning the government that the hiring of teachers in that manner will happen over his dead body.
Though this issue is legitimate and employment of teachers on permanent and pensionable terms is a welcome thing, our union officials, especially the likes of Kokoto Kavu, are treating it like an entitlement.
My colleague Marashi, who has been sulking since Napoleon was promoted to deputy principal, has now found space to vent, as she has always harboured the ambition of being promoted, though I am not sure about her qualifications.
What I know is that she can be quite a rabble-rouser and a bull in a china shop to boot.
I also feel that the issue of hardship allowances merits concern, especially for yours truly, because I believe a science teacher of my calibre should not be cycling daily to school on a mountain bike instead of driving a car of reasonable quality.
In a nutshell, I think I am also entitled to hardship allowances because the kind of lifestyle I’ve just described is also a hardship in one way or another.
Waiting for the final word
However, confusion persisted even as the strike plans continued taking shape, as the modest budget we had come up with was shot down by Napoleon, who claimed it was unnecessary.
Among the items yours truly and Marashi had proposed were vuvuzelas, whistles, bottled water and manila sheets on which our messages of protest would be written.
In defiance, Marashi offered to meet the whole cost of these items from her pocket, much to Napoleon’s chagrin.
Now we are waiting with bated breath for our national union leaders’ final decision before we pour into the streets in the mother of all strikes that will shake the government like never before.
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In fact, if you see a tall teacher running his lanky frame along the highway during the strike, then that will be yours truly.
My bone of contention is being paid hardship allowances.
Or is that so much to ask?
By Pascal Mwandambo
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