By Standard Team
Kenya: The ongoing Kenya Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet ) strike has paralysed learning in public secondary schools countrywide.
A spot check by The Standard in secondary schools in Nakuru County established students were studying on their own as teachers stayed in the staffrooms.
Form Four students in most schools expressed worry over completion of the syllabus as Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations near.
Students of Afraha Secondary School sat in their classes and the responsibility of organising them was left to class prefects and teachers who are not Kuppet members. And learning in most secondary schools in Embu and Tharaka-Nithi counties was paralysed. Kuppet officials said they flushed out teachers from classrooms to have them join in the strike.
Embu Kuppet chairman Anthony Kinyua said the strike was 80 per cent successful since by 2pm most teachers had withdrawn from classrooms.
Kinyua said they had organised themselves into four teams that mobilised teachers in every district to down their tools. “We expect the strike to be 100 per cent effective by tomorrow. There had not been clear communication but there will be no learning in any secondary school in the county,” said Kinyua.
He said they would hold a meeting to come up with a mechanism on how to deal with teachers employed by the Board of Governors who continue teaching. He also called for immediate employment of additional teachers.
In Tharaka-Nithi, teachers who were in four groups gathered at Chuka, Chogoria, Ciakariga and Marimanti markets and said prayers before flushing out their colleagues who had defied the strike order.
In Bomet County there was little activity in schools as teachers either kept way or stayed in staffrooms. The Standard found that there was no serious learning at various schools.
-Reports by Mercy Kahenda, Joseph Masha, Joseph Muchiri, Edwin Makiche, James Munyeki, Tobias Chanji, Renson Mnyamwezi and Michael Wesonga
