The Deputy President elect, Rigathi Gachagua, also says that the Kenya Kwanza government will have a forum with teachers to air their views and proposals.
“Teachers salaries and allowance is an issue for discussion. We must all agree that the cost of living has gone very high and teachers are not exempted from the high prices of food and other commodities. And in response the government must take care of its teachers and way is to listen to them and see the cost of living can be addressed,” said Gachagua.
The DP also says they will open a forum for teachers to raise issues affecting them and would like to be addressed.
He promised an end to the teachers delocalization policy which he says it is destroying families.
“We are where we are because our teachers played an important role in our earlier life. Delocalization…. is a problem it has distablized teachers families,” said the DP.
Knut and TSC started salary talk in July but the talks were put on hold with Knut boss Collins Oyuu saying they will be revisited after the August polls.
“We cannot sit back and watch when teachers cannot put food on the table. We will have cordial dialogue with TSC to ensure they heed our demands. We have started the process with the outgoing government and we shall have it finalised by the new government after the August polls,” said Oyuu
He said the meeting in Naivasha with TSC pushed for teachers’ monetary gain which was agreed through structured talks.
TSC was in a series of meetings with Knut from Tuesday 5th to Friday 8th July 2022 to strike a deal on salary increment for teachers among other issues.
EIGHT PROMISES MADE BY WILLIAM RUTO TO TEACHERS AND EDUCATION INDUSTRY
- Ruto promised to hire all unemployed teachers within two years
There are approximately over 300,000 teachers who are yet to be absorbed into the TSC payroll.
Ruto has also promised to hire all the unemployed teachers within two years. He said his government will employ 50% of them during the first year and the remaining 50% in the following year.
He promised Sh25 billion for the transfer and hiring of more teachers mainly in marginalised areas.
Dr Ruto said this would be implemented in two phases beginning the first year that the UDA government takes over.
“For each phase, we will hire 58,000 teachers beginning next year when we form the government, to close that gap,” Dr Ruto said.
- Ruto said his government will pay for TPD training
During his manifesto launch at the Moi Sports Centre Kasarani, Nairobi, Ruto said his government will pay for the controversial teacher training programme popularly known as TPD.
- Ruto said he will end teacher delocalization policy and pay those affected
Ruto said he will stop teachers being forced to work outside their home counties. Currently the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has a plan to post and transfer teachers to work in counties away from their homes popularly known as delocalization.
The DP said delocalization of teachers will be done at will with allocation of hardship allowance to teachers who will take part in it.
According to TSC latest policy, teachers working in North Eastern region are required to have completed at least three years before they are transferred back to their home counties.
Teachers in other regions are required to work for at least five years before they are considered for transfer to their homes.
“The teacher must have served in a station for a period of not less than three years and five years for North Eastern and other areas respectively since first appointment; unless otherwise authorized by the Commission’s Secretary,” read the new guidelines in part.
However when Ruto takes power only those willing will be delocalized. Again those who will be delocalized will be paid for it.
Ruto said he will abolish the delocalisation policy by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and replace it with a programme that will acknowledge that teachers are a national resource.
He said teachers will be at liberty to choose the counties and schools they want to work for. He promised to convert the current Teachers Management Institute to the Kenya School of Education to better manage the learning institutions.
“The domesticated teacher recruitment and deployment at entry-level will be per the UNESCO teacher deployment practice which treats education as culture process conducted within a people’s culture context at the local level,” he said.
- Ruto said his government will review the CBC curriculum
During the campaigns some Kenya Kwanza brigades led by Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula said they will scrap CBC if they take power.
However the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) presidential candidate William Ruto said his government will not scrap CBC but rather strengthen it by encouraging further engagements with parents, teachers and other stakeholders.
Dr Ruto promised to review the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) to address current challenges identified by teachers and parents.
He said a Kenya Kwanza government would rely on the curriculum review by Unesco to seal gaps that have been pointed out.
“We commit to continue our robust engagement with the public to facilitate the assessment of the current curriculum and education structure towards finding a sustainable solution that will capture the essence of a knowledge-based system,” Dr Ruto said.
“The conversation we want to have is, that we are now five years into CBC. The Unesco guidelines give us the latitude that every five years we have to review the education curriculum and this is the moment. We have had concerns from parents, teachers, and various stakeholders,” he added.
- Ruto promised free internet connection for all primary and secondary schools
Ruto promised to connect all learning institutions, which include primary and secondary schools, in the country with free internet if he is declared the fifth president of Kenya.
Ruto promised a special service tariff for water, electricity and internet connection in all learning institutions to make education affordable.
- Ruto promised to complete construction of TVET institutions
Ruto said if he wins presidency he will complete construction of TVET institutions in the remaining 250 wards.
Dr Ruto said his administration would focus on infrastructure development of institutions since “education is the greatest enabler of the bottom-up economic model.”
He pledged to complete 250 vocational institutes across the country and an additional 52 TVETs within two years.
- Ruto promised to introduce free school feeding programme in all public schools
Ruto promised to that he will introduce free school feeding programme in all primary and secondary schools if elected president.
- Ruto promised to scrap Helb and TVET funding and introduce National Skills and Funding Council
He said the existing funding model for higher education that consolidates universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) funding board and Helb, will be collapsed and a funding council formed dubbed the National Skills and Funding Council.
It is very absurd for tsc to ommit the long graduated teachers when submitting merit list as witnessed in the robust teacher recruitment in July 2022.We request to have the matter addressed without delay for its unfair.
chietha