Education sector headed in crisis as teachers announce strike

Learning in all public primary schools is set to be paralysed when schools open for the third term next week. The paralysis will be occasioned by the announcement of teachers to down tools over various sets of grievances against the government.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) on Friday converged its top officials in Nairobi to announce their decision to down tools as from the night of 25 August.

Headed by their Secretary General Collins Oyuu, the teachers expressed utmost disappointment with the government and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over what they termed as deliberate laxity in solving a crisis rocking the education sector.

"We have no alternative but to down tools because our pleas to the government and the TSC have fallen on deaf ears," said Oyuu.

The teachers who had their officials from all the Knut branches countywide represented in the meeting were particularly aggrieved by the government's failure to honour the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The union raised several key issues, including the delay in implementing the second phase of the 2021 CBA, which promised a salary increment of seven per cent to nine per cent, which the government has failed to honour.

Knut and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) on August 7 issued a seven-day notice for the government to address several teachers' concerns about failure to which the unions would direct teachers to go on strike from August 26.

The unions demanded full implementation of the 2021-2025 CBA. The CBAs between the unions and TSC were signed in June 2021, and amended by an addendum in August 2023.

" The government has failed to honour the agreement we made over payment of teachers and making the service better. This is the reason we are not going back to class as schools reopen," added Oyuu.

Knut accused TSC of breaching the agreement by failing to implement the second phase of the Addendum effective from July 1, 2024, for all teachers, including basic salaries and allowances.

According to Knut Secretary General Collins Oyuu, Collective Bargaining Agreements are key industrial relations tools through which employers and workers' representatives negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, but majorly on growing benefits as workers continue discharging their duties in their employment.

Oyuu is not happy with the decision of the National Treasury to cut the budget issued to the TSC to help implement the union's agreement with the government.

"In light of the decision taken by the National Treasury, and the failure of the two parliamentary committees to convince the government not to whittle down the TSC budget, which has certainly affected the implementation of the Second Phase of the 2021-2025 CBA, confirmation of the 46,000 Junior School intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms and promotion of teachers in the 2024/2025 financial year, Knut emphatically states that the CBA is a legal and binding document that was rightly deposited in the Employment and Labour Relations Court," he noted.

The decision of Knut is set to compound the crisis bedevilling the education sector after  Kuppet on Thursday also announced to down their tools.

Apart from the contention on the unfulfilled CBA, other matters the tutors are seeking to address include remittance of deductions to the health insurance scheme and prompt deduction of loans to respective financial institutions.