By Enock Okong’o
Bomachoge Borabu Member of Parliament, Hon. Obadiah Barongo, has asked the government through the Ministry of Education to enumerate teachers well in order to motivate them in their work.
The legislator said this when he joined students, parents and teachers of St. Peters Keberesi Secondary School while mourning the late Thomas Kiyondi at Nyamecheo village in Kisii County.
He said that teachers do a lot of work in molding children but their payment is far much less than the proportion of the work they do.
“Most of these employees who have degrees earn less than what others on the same level or below earn, not forgetting the attractive packages in other fields,” he said.
The legislator asked teachers to join hands and strengthen their SACCOs by contributing funds geared towards income generation.
He cited examples from other parts of the country where teachers came together to construct rental houses that provide them with extra income instead of depending on salaries, adding that such projects cannot interfere with their profession.
“I would like to advise teachers not to despair while earning little money from their profession but instead to employ the little they get by pulling resources together to help them rise from poverty,” he said.
He condoled with the family of the decease and the entire neighborhood of Nyamecheo village during the burial of the teacher who died through an alleged suicide after a stand-off between him and the wife for a year.
Also in attendance was Magenche Ward MCA Mr. Timothy Ogugu.
On his part, Ogugu asked teachers to open up to one another to enable them vent out instead of sitting on their problems that overweigh them leading to them resorting to take their own lives.
He asked School Boards of Management to put aside some funds that catered for the welfare of teachers who could be having family problems emanating from lack of enough finances for support.
“Money is the root cause of many broken families therefore we should find ways of balancing the equation of getting it for the stability of our homes,” he remarked.
The MCA asked teachers to use the modern information technology to study at their own pace and add more knowledge in the other fields other than only teaching, saying that this would lead to diversity in profession.
“Let our teachers especially those who are young not sit on their comfort zone but instead to advance in education that can enable them change career whenever they wished,” he added.
He mourned the late Kiyondi as a teacher who loved his career but wondered why he decided to take his life at his prime age when his students and family needed him most.
Untill his fateful death, the late Kiyondi was a teacher at St. Peyers Keberesi Secondary School.
He is survived by a widow and one child.
