Northern counties plan to hire tutors

What you need to know:

  • “If the Teachers Service Commission has become short of ideas to help us out of the crisis in this crucial sector, we, the governors from the region will not allow our children to suffer any longer.
  • However, Balambala MP Abdikadir Aden ruled out that option. “We must engage different stakeholders and make sure the education sector in the region gets the serious attention it deserves,” he said.

Garissa and Wajir counties will train, hire and post teachers to schools in the region. This is meant to plug the gap created by the boycott of teachers from other counties due to insecurity.

These are among measures proposed Thursday during a Kenya Secondary School Heads Association regional conference.

“We must get a solution to this problem,” said Garissa Governor Nathif Jama, who opened the conference.

“If the Teachers Service Commission has become short of ideas to help us out of the crisis in this crucial sector, we, the governors from the region will not allow our children to suffer any longer.

“We’ll train, employ and deploy teachers to the affected institutions. If that is acting against the law, so be it,” he said.

His administration would provide Sh100 million towards the project, he added. Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi attended the meeting.

RULED OUT

Teachers in the region proposed that schools should be closed, among other recommendations.

However, Balambala MP Abdikadir Aden ruled out that option. “We must engage different stakeholders and make sure the education sector in the region gets the serious attention it deserves,” he said.

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association Chairman Abdi Moulid Abdi said the TSC should channel the salaries of the teachers who have boycotted the region to their respective schools to cater for the wages of their replacements hired by boards of management.

The leaders also called for a policy shift to provide for the recruitment of untrained teachers and the merging of small schools within one locality.
 More than 1,000 non-local teachers have refused to return to their work stations in the region for fear of terrorist attacks.