Teachers’ unions need to be transformed

Pure and simple trade unionism that confines itself to improving teacher salaries, working conditions and contract protections, without addressing the broader issues of the nature and quality of education, is increasingly inadequate to counter the mounting attacks on public education.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) must aim to secure for students the best possible education.
They need, therefore, to concern themselves with central aspects of public education that were previously the exclusive responsibility of school administration — curriculum development, training of teachers, students’ programmes, and the like.
Moreover, since the project of providing a good education is so profoundly undermined by the background conditions of poverty that restrict the educational opportunities of so many students, teachers should be in the forefront of struggles for social justice, in the community and in the work place.
The basic idea, excellent in itself, is that teachers in their unions must go beyond their immediate concerns, and see the interests of students, and thus the interests of social justice, to be in their own interests.
If teachers and administrators can overcome their mutual animus and suspicion, they can get down to the central task of improving students’ education by improving the teaching profession.