Union of Teachers have raised several grievances they want to be ironed between them and TSC, adding another challenge to the education Ministry considering the fact that issues with the lecturers’ union are still pending. KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion has urged the Teachers Service Commission(TSC) to clear all outstanding promotion and upgrading cases without further delay. Addressing the press in Nairobi, he said that over 30,000 cases of teachers who have acquired higher qualifications for the purpose of earning promotion have been pending at TSC headquarters since 2014.
Sossion also said that in January 2016 the TSC introduced the Performance Contracting (PC) for heads of institutions and Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) for classroom teachers. He argued that this system was introduced without exhaustive consultation with teachers and its implementation has created anxiety among teachers. He said that the tools were biased, intimidating and unprofessional. He urged the commission to unconditionally withdraw the PC and TPAD failure to which the union will call on all teachers to ignore and boycott the contracts.
Furthermore, the KNUT Secretary-General said that the union is calling for an immediate repeal to the delocalization programme as it is harmful to both learners and teachers with far-reaching implications and devastating effects in the long run. Herevealed that the union is urging the commission to hire more teachers at the rate of 20,000 per year to mitigate teachers shortage in the country.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers annual general meetings (AGM’s) will start this weekend and various issues will be addressed including Teacher Career Progression, Job Security, workplace bullying, monitory benefits and more importantly professional freedom.
The meeting will also be used as a forum to discuss the implementation of the entire resolutions of the 60th annual delegates conference which was held on 13th and 14th December 2017 in which Kenyan teachers through their representatives called on Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to withdraw the performance appraisal tools, repeal delocalization of teachers policy, address with immediate effect all pending teachers promotions and the ministry of Education, science and technology to involve all stakeholders in the ongoing curriculum review exercise.
