ODM leader Raila Odinga displays a document containing issues Northeastern leaders want to be addressed by BBI report during a consultative forum in Garissa. [Courtesy]
ODM leader Raila Odinga has said plans are underway to address teachers’ crisis in Northeastern region.
Speaking during the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) rally in Garissa on Sunday, Raila disclosed that President Uhuru is aware of the crisis and will soon issue a statement on the same.
“I talked to Uhuru before I came here and next week you will have an answer,” said Raila.
Raila said he understands the frustration of parents in the region having been a pupil and a teacher himself, adding that something must be done to address the situation.
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“It is painful for pupils to go to school only to find teachers missing in classrooms,” he said.
He called for an affirmative action plan allow Form Four leavers from the region who score D+ and C+ in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams admitted to teaching colleges to bridge the gap.
Raila said, either way, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) must find a solution to the crisis by returning the teachers who left or posting new ones to end the crisis.
The former PM vowed to meet President Uhuru to see to it that schools in the region get teachers in the shortest time possible.
“When I go back in Nairobi I will also push to have more locals trained as teachers,” he said.
The ODM leader further said the security situation in the region will be improved not just for teachers but for all communities living in Northeastern.
Northeastern has been hit by teachers’ shortage following mass transfers of non-local teachers due to insecurity.
Leaders from the region want TSC punished for withdrawing teachers from the region, terming the action discriminative.
The commission transferred all non-local teachers from Garissa County over insecurity fears.
The Commission’s headquarters in Nairobi has been a beehive of activities as the transfers of those in Mandera and Wajir counties are being processed.
Teachers have been soft targets of terror attacks in the region with quite a number killed by al-Shabaab militants in the past two years.
There was a mass exodus of teachers from the region that year after the terrorists attacked a primary school in Wajir East and killed two teachers.
The attack almost brought education in the county to its knees as several schools were closed due to lack of teachers.
