Former Kisii County, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Executive Secretary Ben Nyaundi said the type of professional training they undergo should help them remain timeless leaders in society as they struggle to mould children into valuable individuals through the provision of quality education.
“Teachers are all leaders in society, but the government has always shown the ugly face of economic retardation through temptation that reduces into financial leeches.’He said.
The unionist accused Teachers Service Commission (TSC) boss Dr. Nancy Macharia of being insensitive to teachers’ plight after she reportedly claimed that the Commission had funds to remit to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) for teachers’ healthcare. He questioned how teachers could be expected to deliver services efficiently while their health was at risk.
He accused KUPPET and KNUT of cooperating with the government and the TSC instead of advocating for the teachers they represent.
Saying that unions are meant to strengthen the bargaining power of their members with the employer, he described the declining spirit of teacher unions, which has decreased their bargaining power.
He blamed the government for imposing so many deductions from teachers’ salaries that their monthly payslips looked like batched coats with different-coloured batching clothes.
“Teachers’ salary deductions in the country are higher than their monthly earnings, and if they could be regulated, the educators would emerge as the happiest civil servants.”
The Unionists advised upcoming Unionists to embrace the older spirits of pioneer Unionists in the Country, Tom Mboya, who stood for the good, firm working principles of their members instead of compromising with the employers.
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He asked older teachers in the field to educate those in the field on a meaningful and happy way of celebrating Labour Day, other than using traditional methods of pressuring the government for higher and increased salaries.
He singled out teachers’ celebration with their children and grandchildren on the importance of work and patriotism for national integration.
He told practising teachers to use Labour Day to engage their learners in exploring their future careers and what they entail, instead of engaging them in routine interclass extracurricular competitions.
Nyaundi, a renowned educator and Unionist, was speaking to Education News at His Bomachoge Borabu’s home when he told teachers to be at the forefront of making Labour Day a colourful celebration by leading their students in research on the important career personalities and Unionists, retelling their stories to their colleagues, and even converting the biographies of those personalities into concerts to entertain the public.
“Let our teachers brainstorm with their learners and show appreciation to our daily community workers, like chiefs and hospital workers, by paying them courtesy calls at their workplaces, ” he said.
Saying that teachers are the main educational resource persons, he likened them to a firebrand that does not lose its strength by burning another and appealed to them to continue illuminating society because theirs is a noble profession.
By Enock Okong’o
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