MCA takes time off to teach in public school as teachers’ strike continues

Desperate times call for desperate measures or so an old adage goes.

And with no end in sight to the deadlock between teachers and their employer, Mwiki Member of County Assembly Isaac Ngige decided that pupils of St Dominic Primary School in Kasarani would not waste away.

Mr Ngige has been tutoring pupils in the institution for the past three weeks.

The lawmaker, who is an alumnus of the school, told The Standard that his concern for the pupils’ future is what led him to approach the management of the school and request to be allowed to teach them.

“Before teachers made good their threat to strike, I wrongly thought that the Government would move with speed and avert it. The impasse between the two parties and the subsequent effect it would have on the children necessitated my action,” he said.

Though not trained as a teacher, the International Business Administration graduate has been comfortably teaching Standard Eight pupils most of the subjects.

Shortly after word went round that Ngige had volunteered to teach, 17 Kenya Certificate for Primary Education candidates showed up on the first day.

On the third day, the number had risen to 71, a situation Ngige attributed to the pupils informing their colleagues about the ongoing studies and an overwhelming support from parents.

The school, which has 239 candidates, is the only public school in the area where learning is ongoing. Due to the challenge in handling the big population, Ngige has enlisted the help of some of his close friends who initially could not understand why he had resolved to teach the pupils.

“Eventually, I succeeded in showing them how assisting the candidates would equip them with the requisite knowledge and expertise for succeeding both in school and in life,” he said.