KNUT officials: The bad blood between education officials in Kenya and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) is far from over. On Friday, KNUT officials found themselves on the receiving end after they were locked out of the Ministry of Education national conference at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.
According to reports, the officials were blocked from accessing the forum over what education ministry officials said was lack of accreditation.
The Daily Nation reported that “the KNUT officials were asked to get badges for the forum from the Ministry of Interior.” Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion told the Nation Friday that after checking on the delegates list, their names were missing. ‘We are not on the list and there is no badge so we can’t attend!’ Sossion said. The Kenya Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) are in attendance with its Secretary General Akelo Misori leading his team.”
The Nation also reported that on Wednesday, Kuppet had asked the Ministry to involve them in the ongoing education reforms on curriculum. “The conference has brought together more than 2,000 delegates from across the country and international organisations. It is expected to provide an academicians, religious leaders, and opinion and policy makers an opportunity to discuss quality and the relevance of education the country is giving its children. Knut has been opposed to the implementation of the new competence based curriculum (CBC) citing teacher unpreparedness and inadequate infrastructure to support it.”
The Nation further reported that during the preconferences, Prof Magoha directed the Kenya National Examination (Knec) to clear the tests confusion for Grade Three. “How do we package this assessment for parents to understand that it is not exam?,” he posed. This year, Knec announced that at the end of the year, Grade Three learners will sit for the Kenya Early Years Assessment (Keya). They will be assessed in English, Mathematics and Integrated Learning Areas.