Alarm has been raised over the rising cases of hundreds of teachers posted to teach Junior Secondary School (JSS) in Mbeere South indulging in drug abuse and experiencing mental health issues allegedly due to financial crisis caused by delayed salaries.
Some of the teachers who are yet to choose whether to join KNUT and KUPPET amid mounting labour rights issues, sources indicate, have resorted to chewing muguka miraa, and drinking alcohol and cheap third generation wines and spirits readily available in the now mushrooming bars across the region.
The local leadership has called for a crackdown by the police as the use of illicit brew in Mbeere North and South has also become rampant among students.
Experts have warned that action is needed to forestall deterioration of the teachers’ mental status into levels which may affect their teaching.
“It is very frustrating to enter into a profession and go without a salary for more than two months amid the present economic crisis where money is so scarce that I am being driven mad by Fuliza and Hustler Fund reminders on my mobile phone,” said a teacher who requested anonymity.
Apart from experiencing problems in teaching due to lack of books coupled with slow or no internet connections where curriculum materials could be accessed with ease, the teachers said they had been shoved into new environments with a lot of mental draining problems.
Outside the school, the teachers said they were being tagged as conmen and beggars due to ballooning unpaid bills in shops, green grocers and food kiosks, never mind unpaid house rent arrears.
“Nobody should blame me for partaking these drugs, sometimes the financial crisis is overwhelming,” said a young male teacher seated on a form inside a dingy bar at Gitiburi Trading Centre.
The financial crisis affecting the teachers is worsened by the fact that most got jobs after years of waiting to be hired by the Teachers and Service Commission (TSC).
“Some of us came from very tough backgrounds and the little we earned was through working as casual laborers in farms and sometimes in construction sites meaning we did not have any savings by the time we were hired and posted,” said a teacher at Ndaguma Primary school.
By Robert Nyagah
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