FILE | NATION Knut chairman Wilson Sossion (left) and secretary-general David Okuta Osiany at a past press conference in Nairobi. Mr Sossion warned of a strike if no action is taken to tackle the shortage of teachers
By AGGREY MUTAMBO (amutambo@ke.nationmedia.com)
Posted Monday, September 5 2011 at 15:24
Posted Monday, September 5 2011 at 15:24
The Kenya government on Monday failed to avert an imminent strike by teachers after talks with their union ended without a solution.
The three-hour meeting chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Nairobi did not convince the teacher’s union to rescind their call for the strike even though it was termed as “fruitful.” It was attended by officials from the ministries of Finance and Education, and representatives of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).
The union, with over 200,000 members, is demanding that the government hires more teachers on permanent terms to reduce the workload on current teaching staff in public schools.
The PM had proposed that a solution be reached within a week but called on Knut to cancel the strike and let teachers go back to the classroom as schools reopened for the third term on Monday.
“We are essentially calling on the union to tell their members to calm down and continue with the term and other programmes as the Prime Minister has pledged that we conclude the consultations within one week,” said Education Permanent Secretary Prof James ole Kiyiapi after the meeting.
Knut refused to call off the strike saying the meeting had not provided any solution yet. In the same press conference, the union’s secretary general David Okuta said nothing had changed even after the talks.
“The meeting was fruitful but fell short of resolving issues which we had raised. We are still where we were.”
Solution
The union said it would convene a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to deliberate on the government’s proposal on Tuesday but reiterated that the strike by teachers would go on until a solution is reached.
“I don’t think the NEC can cancel the strike since its original demands were either the government hires more teachers or we strike,” added Mr Okuta.
And the uncertain tug-of-war between the government and Knut is likely to affect school-going children who get back to school for the final preparations for exams later in the term.
The union wants the current 18,000 teachers employed last year on renewable contract to be made permanent as well as employing a further 10,000, still on permanent basis. But while the government concedes a shortage of over 70,000 teachers in public schools, it says there is no money.
With this, the government requires Sh6 billion which Prof Kiyiapi said has to be raised within the provided week.
Finance PS Joseph Kinyua told journalists on Monday that implementing the demand would be a “difficult given the challenges we have” from other sectors of the government.
It was not even clear how the government was going to raise the money although Mr Kinyua hinted at “reducing other services which we have already been offering to Kenyans.”
Since free basic education was introduced in 2003, Kenya has since a rise in enrolment rate of school children although the government has been reluctant to hire more teachers.
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