KUPPET chief decries teachers’ poor working conditions in the county

By Amoto Ndiewo

Garissa County KUPPET branch secretary Melchizedek Inguza has decried the unfavourable conditions teachers in 41 public secondary schools in the region work and live in.

Speaking to Education News in his office in Garissa, Inguza said besides terrorism, teachers’ welfare was overlooked by their health insurance provider AON MINET.

‘’Teachers in Garissa contend with few and far apart medical facilities manned by clinical officers, which the insurer does not recognize,’’ he said, adding, “but TSC only grants sick off on a qualified medical doctor’s recommendation.”

They either have to seek expensive private facilities at their own costs, or travel to Nairobi or Mombasa for specialized treatment.

He recalls how they lost a lady teacher two years ago in a private hospital because the gynaecologist from Garissa Referral Hospital was unavailable at the time, adding that he recently attended a funeral of a teacher from Alinjugur Secondary School.

“The teacher had been getting medical attention at an Alinjugur medical facility, eventually being referred to Garissa Referral Hospital, and subsequently dying in Mombasa where he had been taken for specialized treatment,’’ recounts Inguza.

Inguza said the prevailing local medical bottlenecks in Garissa must be eased.

At the same time Inguza said many rural schools do not have teachers’ houses, forcing them to turn classrooms into living quarters at nightfall.

“What would happen if these teachers had families?” wondered Inguza.

All these happen while the government still expected teachers to attend Teacher Professional Development Training in faraway Mt Kenya University.