The Kenya National Union of Teachers has warned that its September 1 nationwide strike in inevitable if the TSC does not meet its demands.
The Teachers Service Commission
has called a meeting with the teachers on August 21 and KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion has warned that it should not try to bulldoze.
"The TSC should adequately prepare to heed to our demands on August 21. If they do not listen to some of our demands, we shall invoke the weapons, which we have restrained to use for a very long time. That is a strike," Sossion told the press on Monday.
“We do not wish for a stalemate. The TSC must prepare itself for sufficient concession so that teachers remain free and do their work freely. We are not opposed to ideas of originating new policies that affect teaching but there must be extensive consultation."
He spoke
on the sidelines of the four-day 10th African Principal Confederation Conference at Pride Inn Paradise Hotel in Mombasa.
Sossion said they will soon dispatch their analysis and claims of demands to the TSC so that the1 meeting is structured and successful.
Among the issues teachers want addressed are the transfer of school heads (delocalisation), performance appraisals and promotions.
“We are very clear about the promotion of teachers. It is a right - an intellectual right - therefore it is neither negotiable nor reducible," the official said.
"We are very clear on appraisals and the development system which has been rolled out by the TSC. That system is a big issue globally and Europe has dropped it. Who are we to adopt it?
"We shall stand against delocalisation of teachers, which is breaking families and hurting education and other accompanying policies on which we were not consulted."
The Secretary General said this time round they are in a policy war with the
government, not the issue of salaries as has been the norm.
“We are not on a bread and butter issue. We want to protect and preserve the education and our freedom of teachers. We shall stand up against any policy formulated without our involvement," he said.
On Saturday, KNUT's Assistant Secretary-General, Collins Oyuu, compared the delocalisation of school heads to that of rhinos.
He noted that 11 black rhinos died at Tsavo National Park after they were moved and that the same fate might befall many head teachers if they are forcefully delocalised.
“Do you want us to die the same way the rhinos died at Tsavo died after they were delocalised? No; we shall not allow that to happen. Either you listen to us or we down our tools."
He spoke in Mombasa during the unions Mombasa branch Annual General Meeting at Ronald Ngala Primary School.
Oyuu added that it has been established that out of the 70 schools that have experienced unrest, 58 had new school heads, "proof that students are going on rampage because of delocalisation".
“The issue of students fearing examinations is a fallacy. The TSC should know schools are burning because of this delocalisaton of school heads,” he said.
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