Teachers' strike threatens school reopening amid budget cuts

Learning in public schools could be paralysed if the two teachers' unions make good their fresh threat to call for a nationwide strike.

 Both the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) have declared their intentions to go on strike over the Government’s failure to implement salary increments this month as expected.

 This means that the reopening of schools for the third term may be thrown into crisis.

 On Tuesday,  KUPPET joined Knut in rallying its members to boycott work when schools open for the third term.

 The union said it will convene its National Governing (NGC) to deliberate on key issues, including mobilizing for an industrial action starting in September.

 KUPPET demanded that the Government implement the second phase of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that failed to take effect in July.

 “The union’s organs are being mobilized for a national strike from September to force the full implementation of the 2021-2025 CBA, employment of 20,000 new teachers and the conversion of the 46,000 intern teachers into permanent and pensionable terms,” the union demanded.

 The union also decried consistent cuts to the education budget despite the wastage reported by the government.

 KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu said the CBA is a legal and binding document which was signed between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and KNUT in 2021 and rightly deposited in the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

 “There is no way the National Treasury, which is fully aware of the existence and content of the agreement, can backtrack on the CBA by failing to fund adequately TSC to meet its contractual obligations as regards implementing 2021/25 CBA,” said Oyuu last week.

 They demanded that the National Treasury restore, unconditionally, the Sh10 billion it had reduced from the TSC budget terming it as a violation of the CBA, a move that is illegal and immoral.

 “Teachers will not accept anything short of the second phase of the 2.5 per cent to 9 per cent salary increment as stipulated in the amended 2021/25 CBA,” Oyuu affirmed.

 The union called on TSC to use all means possible within its reach to ensure that the agreement which is legal and binding is honoured failure to which the union will use all legal means within its disposal to ensure full compliance.

 The two unions said that teachers have received their July payment without their deserved increment which was already negotiated, signed and deposited to the industrial and labour relations court.

 Again, the government has cut Free Day Secondary School (FDSE) capitation funds by 24 per cent from Sh22,244 per learner per year to Sh17,000 despite repeated calls by principals and other education stakeholders for an upward review of capitation to offset the high inflation of the last seven years.

 Kuppet accused the Government of implementing the most ambitious rollback of social spending since independence, regretting that the scale of cuts to the education budget has no parallels in history.

 “Even the infamous Structural Adjustment Programme (SAPs) that was forced on Kenya by the World Bank and the IMF in the mid-1980s did not result in the magnitude of cost deductions being made today,” the union said.

 Even more concerning, the union said the government is now going back on its commitment to employ 20,000 new teachers and convert 46,000 interns to permanent and pensionable terms while the same government has budgeted Sh54 billion for entertainment and travel by state officers.

 “This kind of wastage is unacceptable to Kenyans and indeed all right-thinking Kenyans. The Sh18 billion cut would irreparably affect teaching in Junior Secondary Schools which depend on intern teachers and where the teacher deficit currently stands at more than 87,000,” Kuppet stated.

 The union said that the abrogated CBA, under-staffing and low teacher morale in junior schools present grave challenges to the education sector and KUPPET will use all the power at their disposal to protect its members’ deserved earnings and save education at the junior school level.

 Also of concern to the union is the fact that the government increased fees for university and college students and though it was meant to alleviate the financial burden on universities, it has made matters worse.

 According to the union, the universities’ liabilities have risen sharply from Sh61 billion to Sh75 billion, while student loans have been delayed for months.

 Again, they complained that the government discontinued Edu-Afya medical insurance through which it paid Sh1,350 in premiums for every student in public secondary schools.

 “The programme was underwritten by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and catered for approximately 3.5 million students.  Its abolition has affected millions of students,” the union said.

 The threat of a strike comes just days after KNUT made a similar call over the non-implementation of their CBA.