The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has threatened to paralyze learning come the second term if the Government does not release capitation money.
According to Kennedy Nyamwanda, KNUT national deputy treasurer while speaking in Kiambu Primary School in Kiambu town on Monday during a by-election of chairperson and women representative positions of Kiambu east Knut branch said that the capitation money a child should not be slashed either.
“Many heads of institutions are really crying and when you say that the population of students went up that is why there is a decrease in capitation it portrays that our Government is poor in planning,” Nyamwanda said.
According to Knut, capitation per child is either increased or it remains where it was but not decreased since the county is going through hard economic times and it is not the time to reduce capitation.
“The prices of commodities that are consumed in schools have gone up and we are appealing to the Government that capitation which was reduced from KSh22,000 to KSh17,000 to revert,” he said
He said that there are several cases of teachers who have served for a very long time in the same grade and should be promoted to the next grade but were never shortlisted or were shortlisted but were never promoted.
Micheal Muna Kiambu west branch Knut secretary general said that head teachers are suffering due to lack of capitation and are being threatened by suppliers to be taken to court due to non-payment.
“As teachers, we are in a limbo since we do not know what will happen when we keep children in schools without capitation and this issue should be addressed soonest,” he said.
Nyamwanda said that Knut is appealing to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to make acquisition of more funds to the Treasury because the teachers who were left out are very many as promoting only 36,000 teachers is a drop in the ocean.
“Our teachers who deserve promotions for stagnating in one grade for many years are more than 100. Let TSC not hide behind the budget but push for more funds from the treasury so that they can go ahead and advertise for more vacancies for our teachers also to be promoted,” he said.
He said that Knut is a serious stakeholder and whatever TSC wants to bring up they must start with them.
“We snubbed their meeting because they had already brought out a document which they wanted us to rubber stamp and we said no. That does not mean that we are not in a good working relationship with TSC. We are working well with TSC, the Ministry of Education and the Government of the day,” he added.
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He said that Knut has since sat down with teachers’ employer and raised their issues about the TSC (Amendment) Bill 2024.
“There were serious issues of how teachers’ salaries are determined since they wanted to leave the unions out and deal with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC). We are always consulted whenever a CBA is being signed and we cannot afford to be left out,” he said.
John Njata Knut executive secretary Muranga south branch said that they are against the amendment bill as it is because they are taking the mandate of the ministry on teachers’ education, quality assurance and standards.
“TSC is taking these roles from the ministry and as a union they cannot support that. We are supporting the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms who recommended that we establish a new body to be charged with teachers’ educational development and also recommended to change the junior high school to form comprehensive school,” he said.
“We are calling upon the Parliamentary Education Committee to steer clear from politics and be objective as they are dealing with a professional body. You cannot ask a union how much we earn and how we spend it. It does not concern the committee,” he said.
He called on head teachers and teachers to share their personal issues and not take it out on the learners.
He said that Knut rejects the issue of teacher demarcation brought by the TSC and teachers should be allowed to belong to a union of his or her choice.
The teachers Union however called on the Government to employ junior high school intern teachers on permanent and pensionable terms as they are suffering bearing in mind that they have the same workload as other teachers.
During the well-attended election Mercy Chege was elected the chairperson of the branch flooring two other contestants while Alice Wanjiru got the woman representative seat.
By Felix Wanderi
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