Row over teacher licensing
What you need to know:
- Knut says tutors should be required to undergo continuous training instead of being licensed
Teachers want a proposal to license them dropped and replaced with continuous training courses.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers and Teachers Service Commission have differed over the matter.
Knut wants the proposed licensing of teachers dropped and replaced with requirement that they undertake continuous training courses.
“A teacher who fails to undertake a prescribed continuous training course or take out a teaching certificate may not be allowed to engage in service,” Knut’s proposal says.
But the TSC says teachers not only need to be registered but to be licensed like other professionals such as doctors and engineers.
However, Knut only wants TSC to enter into agreements with institutions, or agencies of government to ensure that all teachers undertake the training course.
Knut’s advisory council on Tuesday said it would subject the proposals to a public forum to be convened by TSC next week to iron out the differences.
Knut secretary general David Okuta said they would reject the Bill if the Teachers Salaries and Remuneration Committee was dropped in favour of the national commission to set and determine salaries.
This follows the drafting of another Bill by TSC legal officers aided by the Kenya Law Reform Commission where teachers’ unions will lose powers to bargain for salaries.
“Remuneration due and payable by TSC to teachers and its secretariat staff shall be as prescribed by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission,” says the alternative Bill by the TSC.
It adds: “TSC shall only nominate its representative to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission in a competitive manner and as prescribed by the Constitution.”
Knut chairman Wilson Sossion cited article 41 of the Constitution that stipulates that every labour union shall engage the employer in collective bargaining.
They were addressing more than 400 teachers at Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
“There are officials who want to weaken the union but we shall fight until we see all the key provisions that are in favour of our teachers are addressed,” Mr Sossion said.
