Let’s talk to avert strike, TSC tells teachers

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has asked teachers to give talks a chance to avert a looming strike.

TSC secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni Thursday said they were ready to engage with the teachers and come up with a new deal.

“Before they returned to work after last year’s strike, we signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which we have been discussing,” Mr Lengoiboni told the Nation.

However, he said the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) was demanding a new CBA with a basic salary component in it.

“The basic salary component is lacking in the current draft deal and this is where differences are arising from.”

Mr Lengoiboni wants Knut to sign the draft CBA before they can discuss a new deal.

“We need to engage through TSC’s consultative committee on terms and conditions of service for teachers. They cannot possibly call for a strike when we are still talking, yet they never brought the issue of strike to our attention in the first place,” he said.

On Wednesday, Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion announced that members would go on strike in 21 days if TSC failed to come up with a deal.
Kuppet support

KUPPET SUPPORTS STRIKE

And Thursday, Knut received the support of its rival Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).

However, secretary general Akello Misori clarified that Kuppet members would not support industrial action “as it will not yield any solutions to challenges faced by teachers.”

Mr Misori, who was with Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba and secretary for gender Catherine Wambilyanga, said: “We are demanding that the TSC engages with teachers immediately.

“We agreed to engage on increase in basic pay, house allowance, annual leave allowance, responsibility and comprehensive medical cover.”

He lamented that the TSC consultative committee had been too slow in initiating this discussion.

“TSC should take issues raised by teachers seriously because these concerns are genuine,” he added.

Meanwhile, parents have faulted Knut’s tendency to call for strikes towards national examinations.

Kenya Parents and Teachers Association secretary general Nathan Barasa accused the union of using school children as a bait to broker pay deals.

Mr Barasa said that pushing for higher salaries when national examinations were around the corner caused a lot of anxiety in the education sector.

“Knut is missing the point. They are using the children as a shield to fight their wars with the government.

“With the talk of strike all over, teachers will lose focus on revision and covering the syllabus. And just like last year, most students may not pass their exams because of the disruptions,” Mr Barasa said.

He went on: “Why can’t they go on strike early in the year before the budget is prepared so that their grievances can be captured in the budget making?”
Meanwhile, a meeting between stakeholders in the education sector and the government on Basic Education Regulations 2014 will be held Friday at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.

NEW REGULATIONS

The meeting comes as stakeholders protested that they had not been given enough time to scrutinise the regulations.

Kuppet has warned it would not accept regulations that will take the management of teachers away from TSC.

Mr Misori said the Ministry of Education should keep off management of teachers and leave the work to TSC which is constitutionally mandated to do so.

“We are opposed to the ministry deploying school heads as agents, giving them contracts as well as disciplining them. That is the work of TSC, if they have money to pay teachers as agents it should be done by the commission,” he said.

Contentious issues in the regulations include ministry’s plan to hire school heads as agents on a period not exceeding 15 years.

The ministry is also seeking to have powers to discipline head teachers recruited as agents.