Every time I hear teachers sing "Solidarity Forever, Solidarity Forever, Solidarity Forever and the Union Makes us Strong", I feel the sense sobriety and togetherness in teachers. Teachers are the backbone of every society.
Without teachers, there can be no sane society. The society will be disillusioned and confused. An education to all is a driver to an enlightened society. Many say, education is the key to success, but the rigid few forget that this success is necessitated by teachers.
They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even when you don't know it. I visited South Africa, a place called Marikana; this is one of the remotest areas of the Province of Gauteng. Every school teacher I met had a good home and a car. They are treated well.
In Botswana, teachers are paid well and the government respects them. In Kenya, we treat teachers just like 'an old rag' that is useless due to its loss of value. It must be known to all that the most hardworking category of workers in the world is the teaching fraternity. The real heroes are the teachers who at no small risk to themselves refuse to lie down and play dead for censors.
The Kenyan government has refused to respect the teachers. Jubilee has clearly told the teachers that they add no value to them. A president who looks at a teacher into their face and tells them that 'I can't pay you, I won't pay you' knowing how a teacher struggles to make ends meet, is a leader who has no morale standing in society. A society that HATES teacher is a rotten society.
I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well. A teacher who is paid well and lives a happy life earns the right and the ability to help children learn. The leadership of Jubilee has once again failed the nation. From insecurity, to grand corruption and now they are escalating the teachers’ crisis by refusing to honour the court ruling on their 50-60 per cent salary hike. By blatantly refusing to obey the Supreme Court, Jubilee has clearly demonstrated to every Kenyan that, you can choose to respect any ruling by the court or not, simple.
What do you think a teacher feels when they see the children who went through their hands own big homes and drive posh cars when they keep using 'route eleven' every morning and evening? How does a teacher feel when they see their former students earn big moneys when they keep earning peanuts year in, year out?. What the teacher is is more important than what he teaches. A teacher must be motivated at all times. Jubilee administration is reluctant to address the teachers' issue.
Last weekend, Deputy President William Ruto echoed the president's position saying that there is nothing the government will do to help the teachers. He went on to say that "teachers wanted an independent body (read the TSC) to run their affairs, we granted them their wish” he went on to say “now that their body says they don’t have money to pay teachers, what do they want us (government) to do?”. This is laughable. Has the Deputy President forgotten that the National Government is a government for all the people? Has he forgotten that it is the national government that decides what amount of money should go to which department of government? Spare us this joke Mr. Deputy President. Teachers are not dump.
The government must know that you can't stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it. So playing with their minds won’t help, after all, teachers are the biggest psychologists, they know when and what time someone is trying to be cheeky. Getting stupidity from someone’s head is not a small task, it is the most difficult job that even a minister of government cannot do. A teacher uses all the tricks they learnt to impart knowledge in a child’s head to make them productive citizens.
With the way they are handling the teachers’ crisis, Jubilee have demonstrated their incompetence in leadership and governance. Their lacklustre leadership and dismissive style of governance laced with arrogance and pedestrian attitude, have all proved that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government has become a disgrace to good governance. When teachers doubt your potential, know that you are minced meat.
Jubilee’s credibility has plummeted and is melting in the hot sun. They have no face. If they can afford money to bail out Kenya Airways and other companies that have willingly mortified themselves, what makes it difficult for them to afford money to pay teachers good salaries and improve their lifestyles? From Amit Ray’s book, Walking the Path of Compassion I picked up this for Jubilee: “Education is unfolding the wings of head and heart together. The job of a teacher is to push the students out of the nest to strengthen their wings.” Please, help the teachers to help strengthen the wings of the country’s children.
The writer is ODM's director of communication. Twitter @Etalephilip.
