• Teachers Service Commission has maintained it will not post teachers to North Eastern if the insecurity situation is not fixed.
• The teachers' employer meanwhile urged the local leaders to help the Commission mop up retired teachers below 65 years to help fix the current shortage.
Image: COURTESY.
The Teachers Service Commission has maintained it will not post teachers to North Eastern if the insecurity situation is not fixed.
TSC boss Nancy Macharia told Parliament that the right to life supersedes the right to education and called on the government to improve security in the region.
"If our teachers today are assured of security and safety, we will post teachers in the afternoon," Macharia told National Assembly's Education Committee.
"Right to life is sacrosanct and supersedes all other rights."
The teachers' employer meanwhile urged the local leaders to help the Commission mop up retired teachers below 65 years to help fix the current shortage.
"We are asking the leaders of the Northeastern region to help us in encouraging their locals who are trained teachers, to apply for teaching jobs in that region. And to encourage more of their people to train as teachers so they don't need to demand non-local teachers," she said.
Macharia noted that TSC has been portrayed as a heartless employer with no regard for the wellbeing of teachers in the affected regions.
She said the claims are untrue since the commission has done everything in their power to ensure the teachers are safe.
"We have to emphasize here, that safety concerns of our teachers are of paramount importance to us as an employer, contrary to the misconception that we don't care about their wellbeing once deployed to their stations of duty," she said.
Education CS George Magoha and Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai were also appearing before the committee chaired by Julius Melly.
Magoha reiterated that the Leadership of the Northern region should identify students fit to be trained as teachers, so they can be trained a soon as possible.
"I am aware that there are 24,058 students in the North-Eastern region who scored grade C plain and above. I don't see why we cannot train them to be teachers, to teach in their own locality," he said.
On his part, KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion urged TSC to work closely with the police to find a lasting solution to the situation.
"It is not an easy thing to comprehend that every few days, we bury teachers. let us not be emotional about this issue, but strive to find a lasting solution to the issues raised," he said.
Mutyambai said that he has deployed more teams in areas within Garissa, where there are more threats than others, and as a result, he has seen the difference in security.
"Any insecurity cases facing teachers were, and have always been, communicated in real-time. We have always advised accordingly," he said.