Posted
Friday, September 9
2011 at
22:30
Teachers and the government on Friday evening finally brokered a deal to end a week-long strike.
As part of the agreement, the 18,060 teachers on contract will
be given permanent jobs next month. An additional 5,000 new teachers
will be employed in January next year.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) chairman Wilson Sossion said the deal was agreeable. (Read: Knut rejects plan to recruit more contract teachers)
Mr Sossion said that the strike would be called off after a meeting of the union’s national executive committee (NEC).
“We
will probably meet on Sunday and only then can the NEC decide to go
ahead and call off the strike,” he said soon after the deal was struck.
On
his part, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta said: “I have held very
fruitful discussions with Knut and I am glad to say that we have
agreed.”
The deal was a culmination of frantic efforts made by the government seeking a formula to end the week-long teachers strike.
At least four meetings between top government and union
officials were held, going late into the night, as some schools started
sending pupils home following the work stoppage.
The teachers’ strike had marred reopening of schools for the third term since Monday.
Most
day schools in many parts of the country sent pupils back home
yesterday after it became clear that no learning was taking place.
The
government team, which comprised top officials from the Treasury and
Education ministry, tried to persuade the union officials to call off
the strike.
The teachers had earlier rejected another
government deal that was to open the door for the recruitment of 9,000
teachers on permanent basis.
Another 9,000 teachers were set to be recruited next year.
The teachers wanted the government to recruit 28,000 teachers on permanent terms.
Of this, 18,000 would have been those currently serving on contract while the rest comprised a fresh batch.
The strike had been endorsed by the two rival unions, Knut and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).
Failure to end the strike could have put preparations for the national examinations in jeopardy.
The
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination is set to start on
October 18, which means a week of no learning may have drastically
derailed coverage of the syllabus for Form Four candidates.
The Standard Eight examination will to be held in November.
Practical examinations
Those taking agriculture as a subject are expected to start their practical examinations this month.
Usually, most schools complete the syllabus weeks earlier.
Boarding schools were also spending money on students who were not being taught.
The
first meeting with Knut officials was held at the Treasury offices at
11am on Friday. The officials then retreated to another meeting at Jogoo
House that was believed to further iron out details of a proposed deal.
Mr Sossion earlier said the teachers wanted all their demands met, a situation that prompted the flurry of meetings.
The
hardline position earlier adopted by the unions followed anger sparked
by Parliament’s move on Thursday to pass a Bill to allow the government
to withdraw money for ministries from the Consolidated Fund without any
for the recruitment of teachers.
It was believed the
move to pass the Appropriation Bill had effectively shut the door on
teachers’ hope of getting money for the recruitment of 28,000 more
tutors.
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