The retooling of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) teachers organised by Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has stalled in most of the centres in Nairobi after their spokesperson Boniface Omari was apprehended by the police at Jamhuri Primary School.
has stalled in most of the centres in Nairobi after their spokesperson Boniface Omari was apprehended by the police at Jamhuri Primary School.
In a statement written to Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association (KEPSHA) by one of the Curriculum Support Officers (CSO) who was present at Jamhuri School and seen by Education News revealed that the retooling has stopped.
The CSO said TSC officers are waiting for the next move.
“The retooling has stalled, TSC officials waiting for the next move. Being the only deployed in the room, I can only sit and watch,” the statement reads in part.
The JSS intern teachers on the other hand vowed not to continue with the training which is taking place in different centres in protest and demanded for the release of their representative.
Omari arrest comes after he released a statement demanding JSS intern teachers to disown the return to work formula signed on Saturday, June 1 by a section of JSS intern teachers’ representative with Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) terming them as betrayers maintaining that the JSS intern teachers strike is still on.
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He revealed that KUPPET is not their employer and they cannot purport to sign any return to work formula with them, and that the union cannot also purport to withdraw the show cause letters that were already challenged in court.
The leaders through their Association, the Kenya Junior School Teachers Association (KEJUSTA) where Daniel Murithi is the Secretary General while Omari acts as the Spokesperson maintains further that their demands remain to be confirmation of 46,000 intern teachers and any agreement or deal must engage the right parties; that is, TSC or Parliament through the Labour Committee.
“Following the betrayal of moguls by a part of the leadership, the National Leadership hereby calls upon moguls to ignore the shoddy papers written by unknown people herein referred to as betrayers and only accept communication through the Secretary General Daniel Murithi and the Spokesperson Omari Omari,”
“On Saturday (referring to Friday May 31, 2024) we were called for a meeting where we were offered gifts in terms of money amounting to KSh30,000 each in exchange of calling off the strike with fake promises. We rejected the offer and demanded to meet our employer who is responsible for any such commitments that match our demands. However we were shocked to see KUPPET and some people who purport to be our leaders release a misleading statement,” he said in the statement.
Omari noted further that they have consulted their legal team and they maintain that going to school without any formal agreement is suicidal to the demands of the intern teachers.
Therefore, he has urged all JSS teachers to wait for the planned meeting with the Labour Committee which will take place this week, adding that the strike is still on until formal agreement has been signed.
TSC had announced the training of trainers (ToTs) to kick off on May 20- 30, 2024 thereafter the trainers were to retool the JSS intern teachers across the selected venues in different areas from May 27- and finish on June 6, 2024.
By Vostine Ratemo
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