Contract teachers free to join trade unions

By GEORGE MUNENE
Posted Tuesday, August 24 2010 at 13:55

Education Permanent Secretary Prof James Ole Kiyiapi. Photo/FILE
Teachers hired by Government on contract terms have been told they are free to join a trade union of their choice.

At the same time, the Government said it was untrue that such teachers would be barred from joining a workers union which will fight for their rights.

Education Permanent Secretary, Prof James Kiyiapi dismissed such reports as misinformation saying it was the right of such teachers to join such bodies.

“Teachers have a right to join either Kenya National Union of Teachers or Kenya Union of Post Primary Education of Teachers,” he said while on a tour of Kerugoya Girls High School in Kirinyaga.

Prof Kiyiapi said the provisions had been provided for in the current hiring of contract teachers to bridge a biting shortage in the country.

Among those that have stood in the way of hiring of teachers on contract include the teachers unions and Members of Parliament, who want them hired on permanent terms.

But the PS sought to assure both the teachers and the unions that no one would be barred from joining such bodies.

Prof Kiyiapi was speaking at the school where he had gone to settle a leadership wrangle that had torn the school management into two, affecting service delivery.