By Rhoda Mutuku
Kenya national union of teachers (KNUT) has rejected radical changes proposed by education cabinet secretary Dr Fred Matiangi, and accused the CS of attempting to bulldoze superfluous directives without involving relevant authorities.
Union secretary-general Wilson Sossion said CS Matiang’i and teachers employer Teachers Service Commission are in hasty attempts to force the new changes in Kenya’s education system in an unrealistic approach which is bound to fail’ and put the education sector into possible crisis.
“No one should choose a textbooks for you as a teacher, the only policy to distribute books should be through bookshops but not from the government,” Sossion told thousands of teachers attending the 13th Kenya Primary School Heads Association, delegates conference at Sheikh Zayed hall in Mombasa and added “The hurry with which the CS is implementing decisions is alarming and a recipe for chaos. Let there be systematic, planned and all-inclusive implementation.”
Apart from the proposal to have ministry of education procurement and distribution of textbooks for schools, the CS also announced that primary and secondary schools that are within the same compounds will be under one head teacher and one school board.
All primary school teachers will be required to be holders of bachelors degree while secondary school counterparts must be holders of masters, according to new changes announced by TSC.
But KNUT treasurer John Matiangi maintained that union will not succumb to Matiang’i’s ‘boadroom orders’ unless the CS goes back to consultation table with authorities.
And as government plans to roll out new curriculum in January, the union officials are concerned that there is glaring inadequacy of teaching staff coupled with serious infrastructural challenges in majority of schools across the country.
Sossion said the matter of few staff must be solved urgently and that teachers should be hired in December, not next year ahead of the curriculum roll out.
He termed as malicious, move by TSC to raise academic qualifications requirement saying it was out of order.
As a result, the union officials vowed to resist any idea that overlooks consultation by either mobilizing relevant bodies to use judicial means failure to which they will be forced to stage strikes.
“To successfully manage an institution, experience is needed more than a degree. The TSC should promote all teachers who have attained those degrees first. They are stuck in the same job group.”said Sossion
He is of the opinion that the new policy should be applied to the newly appointees but not teachers who have been in the service for a long period of time.
His sentiments were echoed by the KNUT chairman Wyclife Omuchemi who noted the issue of delocalization by TSC will create tensions in the education sector rather than bring cohesion as believed.
