Teachers’ unions are formed with the sole aim of championing for the interests of its members. The overriding functions of the teacher unions in Kenya include and not limited to; collective bargaining and salary negotiation, legal representation, professional development and training, advocacy and policy influence and lastly, social welfare and teacher empowerment.
The major two unions for the teachers in the country, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) left teachers to their own devises in the recent promotional interviews conducted by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
The just-ended teacher exercise witnessed the tutors heap blames on their unions. The disgruntled lot includes regular teachers who have acted as senior teachers and have documentation. While their colleagues who have acted as deputy head teachers and Principals are heavily rewarded, these cohort of teachers feel neglected.
Senior teacher position
The score sheet, as told to Education News by those who have so far gone through the process, was skewed to favour those who have only acted as either deputy and head teachers. The teachers feel that the senior teacher position is equally an administrative role that should be given importance and anyone in an acting capacity should be rewarded.
Education News has learnt that a number of deputy Principals in job group D1 across the country were left out.
Interesting incidences in Nyanza, Coast and Central regions involved deputy Principals in an acting positions. Some steered their schools to achieve stellar performance in the 2024 KCSE but were unlucky not to have met the cut for promotions.
Also complaining are a whole set of young teachers who had higher qualifications who thought they would be considered to face the interview panels. As they soon learnt, the Commission was more concerned with the teachers that had overstayed for long in one Job Group. But this cadre of teachers are arguing that if unions were serious, they should have pushed for recognition of higher education as a factor in promotions as they draft their Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs).
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Majority of the aggrieved teachers have shifted their blame to their unions. The teachers feel that the unions are a big letdown on matters of promotions. The teachers intimated that the unions do little on advocacy and policy influence. They indicated that, the unions should have met the Commission and stood their ground on how the score sheet should have been designed to ensure fairness.
The teachers interviewed by Education News felt that the unions are now bothered more on the release of capitation funds to schools and as well as how to increase their retirement age through amendments of their respective constitutions.
Score sheet
“Our national officials should have demanded to know the score sheet before the interview period. The best they can do now is to lament and issue threats,” said one of the affected teachers in Bomet.
As the current CBA comes to end, teachers are asking their unions to be vigilant. They said that they expect a CBA and a Career Progression Guideline that will correct all the anomalies visited upon them by the ongoing interviews.
By Kaptich Tarus
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