Teachers have been asked to dialogue with their employers the Teachers Service Commission to end the looming strike.
Muhoroni MP Onyango Koyoo said Kenya National Union of Teachers and TSC should solve their differences without threats of a strike.
The MP urged teachers to be patriotic and give dialogue a chance in solving disputes.
In a press conference in Kisum, Koyoo who is a member of committee on Labour and Social Welfare of the National Assembly, said the strike will halt learning activities in schools.
Knut, through secretary general Wilson Sossion has called for a strike beginning Thursday.
Koyoo asked Sossion to call off the strike.
“Those in the labour movements should desist from strike threats and give room for negotiations. I want to urge teachers to consider the lives of innocent schoolchildren,” Koyoo said.
He asked MPs to intervene. He also asked TSC to recognise the goodwill while having talks with the union to avoid damage.
On Sunday, Sossion said teachers will not resume duties until all issues are resolved to their full satisfaction. Sossion is a nominated MP and also sits in the Labour Committee. He asked teachers to fully participate in the strike to claim their justified rights. Sossion cited a raft of issues, including demands that mass transfers be halted. Appraisals and promotions are among the other issues raised.
Other issues include implementation of the new curriculum, and the promise of 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools.
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According to a report signed by Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, the education sector is short of Sh113 billion required to ensure a smooth implementation of five key projects.
Attempts by the government through the Ministry of Labour to avert the strike seem to have failedl after talks with Knut broke down on Saturday.
Sossion claimed that the talks had failed due to lack of good will by the TSC.
He said the strike is on if TSC sticks with its plan of promoting teachers and continues with transfers.
The new competency-based curriculum will replace the 8.4.4 system. The reforms introduce a new education system with four tiers (early years, middle school, senior school and tertiary and university). Sossion said most teachers lack the capacity to implement the new curriculum.
He said private schools are privileged because most of them have better outcomes in the piloting phase while public primary schools struggle. The union said the process was hurried.
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