Why latest KNUT strike scaremongering is in bad taste

The other day, I was shocked to hear officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) threaten to call a strike, only days to the start of the national examinations, if the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) does not act on its demands.

This is it: An intransigent Knut and flat-scared candidates.

As much as Knut and its officials may be having grievances that need to be addressed, but calling for a national teachers strike when students are just about to start national examination to address these problems, as Knut is doing, misplaces the source of these problems.

Taxpayers and parents are categorically not to blame for inadequate levels of consultation on teacher issues and related challenges facing Knut.

As a teacher who has taught across levels for some time now, I’m well aware what the strike threat portends, especially for the students. It is just mind boggling. They are all now in a state of confusion, anxiety, fear and gloom. And this fear is real among candidates and parents. In short, what Knut and its top officials are doing to the candidates is to subject the candidates to psychological torture.

Not a wise move

Such strike threats will haunt the country for long because Knut has called strikes numberless of times. They have withstood all that and are now ready to be examined and move to the next level.

If you ask any parent now, inflation and other pressures have done them in and the least they expect is another threat on their very children.

This isn’t a good move, not least from those who should know better, like Knut.

As a nation, we are clearly joking with the children’s personal development if this situation can’t be reversed as candidates are being subjected to unnecessary pain when they shouldn’t be. The candidates actually face serious anxiety and pressure in this period than at any other.

Indeed, all over the world, tests are categorised as anxiety-provoking stimuli. This is especially the case in high stake exams such as the final exams in primary and high school, which literally determine where one ends up in life; in success or failure.

From where I sit, the strike threat is unnecessary in various ways. First, it is incredibly detrimental to candidates’ learning. And it is selfish of Knut and its officials because, in the end, it will have lasting damage; physical and mental.

Why would Knut want our future leaders to complete their exams like a ghost, drifting through and worried? And Knut does not feel human anymore?

Secondly, parents are taxpayers just like Knut. No one, including Knut would want to see their energies, put together for years, go to waste just like that. Yet, clearly, the answer is a systematic. The teachers’ union has been looking for a strategic time to hit where it hurts most; the students at exam time.

Knut may be right to be outraged about certain education issues like the delocalization, revocation of transfers for 85 teachers who are Knut officials, promotion of teachers who have acquired higher academic qualifications and recruitment. But it is short-sighted to ask teachers to prepare not to offer services to their charges when it is very clear that it is the children who will suffer most.

Instead, Knut should direct its outrage where it belongs—at TSC and ensure that they flex their muscles from that end if they would wish to have any kind of public sympathy.

Why not another time?

Thirdly, we all know that our candidates are adolescents and adolescence is a period in which most students undertake their high school exams in preparation for higher education.

Higher education is of paramount importance because it means a pathway to forming an identity such as a good career and an opportunity to establish a stable economic state in entering into mature adult responsibilities such as work and family.

Therefore, exams, like KCSE, being taken during this period often carry high stakes in regards to the future of the young one.

Fourth, in a country where education is highly valued because it is seen as the gateway to economic opportunities and better social status, national examinations are high stakes game.

This then makes it important for most students to perform well in Standard Eight to secure a place in a good high school and high school exit exams in order to secure places and preferred courses in higher education institutions.

Since national exams define the life of a person after school, for now, because that’s how the system is designed, it is incumbent for Knut to withdraw this threat and ensure a conducive environment for these examinations as they look for a solution.

Prof Mogambi, a development communication and social change expert, teaches at the University of Nairobi: hmogambi @ yahoo.co.uk