Teachers strikes in Kenya: BY DAILY NATION: The Teachers Service Commission has announced that it will sack teachers who take part in the strike that is set to begin on January 3 2019.
This comes after the Kenya National Union of Teachers declared that the strike will go on. The teachers union is protesting a decision by the TSC that saw 3,000 headteachers transferred.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia has asked the commission’s head of quality assurance, Dr Mugwuku Nthamburi, to prepare details of the estimated 290,000 trained and registered teachers, but who are unemployed, who would be recruited to replace those who go on strike. This is intended to dilute the strike and ensure learning is not disrupted.
“You are required to urgently extract the data provided by the teachers in their registration details in the teacher online registration portal,” says Ms Macharia in her December 21 letter, a copy of which the Daily Nation has obtained.
She directed Dr Nthamburi to “ensure the teachers can be contacted on short notice through the bulk SMS facility for assignment of duty”.
TSC delocalization: TSC transfers over 3,000 teachers in latest move
While the letter does not expressly state that the TSC will hire new teachers to replace those who will boycott work, it sends a warning to Knut — which has ruled out any conciliation talks — that schools will open on Thursday as scheduled and that mitigation measures are in place to guard against disruptions.
Knut — which has a membership of about 180,000 — yesterday wrote to its branch officials throughout the country asking them to ensure no teacher reports to work on Thursday.
Secretary-General Wilson Sossion’s letter to Knut’s executive secretaries read in part: “…bring to the attention of every member that the strike action commences exactly on the opening date of the new term. No teacher should report for the new school term until the strike is called off formally by the secretary-general.”
Knut has been campaigning for the promotion of all teachers who have attained higher education qualifications, a review of the new performance contracting system and the stoppage of mass transfers of headteachers and their deputies in a new policy introduced to delocalise the management of schools.
“We shall not resume duties until all these issues are resolved to the full satisfaction of the Kenyan teachers. We call on all teachers to fully participate in this historic strike in order to claim our justified rights,” the Knut boss said.
On Saturday, a meeting between Knut and a conciliator appointed by Labour Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani failed to sort out the crisis, with the union insisting the strike will go ahead.
Another meeting has been scheduled today in the afternoon at the Labour Headquarters, but with both sides hardening their positions, it is unlikely to bear much fruit.
TSC’s head of communications Kihumba Kamotho, however, said they are optimistic the issues will be resolved through the conciliation process, but declined to discuss the issue further, saying, he does not want to pre-empt the deliberations.
“It is in the interest of all parties, including Knut, to support the conciliation process,” Mr Kamotho said.
In 2015, TSC hired teachers on a three-month contract after a strike to press for higher pay extended up to a month. The TSC also advertised for 70,000 teaching vacancies and the union called off the strike.