Why Teachers are planning to strike. Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers Busia County Executive Secretary Moffats Okisai has sounded a warning to the government against deducting teachers’ salary for the proposed national housing scheme saying that teachers will down their tools if the proposal is effected.
Speaking at Nuru Palace Hotel in Nakuru during the Busia County Kenya Secondary SchoolsSecondary Schools Heads Association Academic workshop, he said that teachers are being paid poorly and the cost of living is becoming unbearable thus the government should increase teacher’s salaries instead of deducting.
The unionist said that about eighty percent of teachers in the country have built their own houses and there is no need to deduct money from them.
Why Teachers are planning to strike is because they do not need the government to build houses for them as a majority of them own homes. Why should the government force them to pay for the housing schemes?
The teachers are not the only ones affected by the president’s directive to deduct three percent of the basic salary but also employees from across the country. The timing for such a move is bad considering how the cost of living is becoming unbearable.
Okisai also asked the government to amend the Teachers Service Commission Act No. 20 of 2012 Section 34 to facilitate the establishment of the Independent Teachers Appeal Tribunal to accord fair hearing for teachers who are dismissed or deregistered without being heard.
The Busia Executive Secretary said a teacher who has served the commission for a long duration and is about to retire can be dismissed but the Teachers Service Commission will deny him pension in the name of discipline. It is not fair at all to teachers.
In attendance at the workshop were Ministry of Education officials, Teacher Service Commission officials and Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association officials from Western region.
