Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha now wants the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) to call off its planned strike ahead of the KCPE and KCSE examinations.
Prof. Magoha appealed to the teachers to reconsider their decision in a bid to ensure students sitting for the forthcoming examinations are not affected.
Speaking during the opening of a new CBC classroom at Nyamira Boys High School in Nyamira County on Thursday, Magoha said the looming strike by the teachers would paralyze the examination process.
“I want to encourage and thank our teachers and also to publicly request KUPPET to withdraw their strike notice. Our children are not like a chase to be played with,” Magoha said.
“It is their very democratic right to issue a statement of a strike but the children belong to everybody including themselves.”
Similarly, Prof. Magoha advised the teachers that issuing the notice after examinations were over would be a considerate move on their part.
“I want to plead with them to suspend that strike and if they like, they can issue it after the exams. It will be a fair game for the children,” he stated.
At the same time, the CS reassured of the government’s preparedness in carrying out the national examinations which are set to start in three weeks’ time.
“I want to thank the teachers who are already very well prepared and the exams will go on as participated,” Magoha said.
KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misouri on Wednesday threatened that teachers would down their tools within seven days if the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would not meet their demands.
The union accused TSC of failing to honor the re-negotiated Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) of 2021-2025.
In the CBA reforms, the teachers are demanding a pay increase for those with higher education qualifications so as to improve the quality of education in schools across the country.
“When you go to some schools, there are teachers with more than three PHD qualifications. There are even more senior members with higher qualifications than some education directors and yet their pay continues to be general pay,” Misori said.
