Teachers in strike threat over transfers and appraisals

Teachers have threatened to go on strike should the Government continue with the ongoing school reforms.

On Monday, the teachers gave the Government 20 days to stop massive teacher transfers and performance appraisals, describing them as illegal and a setback to quality education.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the schools delocalisation policy and the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) were ill thought out and were being poorly implemented.

He instead asked the Teachers Service Commission to promote teachers who had attained higher academic qualifications in the course of their careers.

NEW POLICIES

Speaking at Homa Bay High School during a Knut annual general meeting on Sunday, Mr Sossion said the new policies were having a negative impact on teachers’ performance.

“There is no school that will be opened for the second term if the government fails to meet these demands. We will call for a massive strike in this country from the opening day,” said Mr Sossion, who was accompanied by Homa Bay Woman Rep Gladys Wanga.

The union will order all  teachers to camp at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) offices, Mr Sossion said and claimed that the transfers were breaking marriages because teachers were being uprooted from their families unnecessarily.

CYBER CAFES

He said many teachers were spending of their time in cyber cafes filling out appraisal forms instead of teaching.

“Teachers have been turned into clerical officers who walk from one cyber café to another while feeling the TPAD forms. Teachers were employed to teach and this must stop,” he added.

Ms Wanga said teachers who teach in their own home areas offer various forms of aid to the society.

“Teachers are resources in their own home areas. Village funerals, school fee shortage and any other forms of financial issues are directed to teachers hence delocalisation will disrupt lives,” said  Ms Wanga.