Teachers issue seven-day strike notice

Teachers have issued a seven-day strike notice over the government’s failure to employ new staff.

The move is likely to create confusion ahead of next week’s reopening of schools for the third term.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) on Tuesday served the notice to Labour minister John Munyes and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

The Treasury had defied the parliamentary Budget Committee’s proposal to set aside Sh5 billion for employing teachers, said Knut secretary general David Okuta.

“At the expiry of the seven days notice, if no solution will have been found to this problem, all members of the union shall commence a strike,” he said.

If the teachers make good their threats, it means that learners in public schools might be forced to stay at home as schools reopen.

The Budget Committee, in its reallocation report, had recommended that 28,060 teachers be employed this year, including the 18,060 on contract.

But this was not to be as the Appropriations Bill passed in Parliament yesterday only created an additional Sh2.4 billion for contract teachers’ salaries.

“It is unfair and there is urgent need to rectify the terms of service for these teachers,” Mr Okuta said in a separate letter to TSC.

He accused the commission of treating the matter casually “by insisting that contractual terms of employment discriminates upon teachers of equal qualification and same training.”

In the letter to the Labour minister, the union boss argued that employing teachers under contract was illegal under the current TSC Act, and was also not in the negotiated scheme of service.

“The union has addressed this matter with the employer several times, but our discussions do not seem to bear fruit. We are therefore reporting it to you as a dispute.”

The 18,060 teachers were employed on contract in 2009 under the economic stimulus package and they were to serve for three years before being absorbed permanently.

That was the first time TSC hired contract teachers. Money was to be set aside to enable the commission employ the contract teachers on permanent basis and an additional 10,000 to address staff shortage in schools.

“To our disappointment, when the Budget was read, there was no provision for conversion of the contract teachers to permanent and pensionable terms,” said Mr Okuta.

TSC said the current shortage stood at 75,000 teachers, even as public schools continued to witness rise in enrolment.