It's self-defeating for State to mistreat, underpay teachers

Kenya has suffered perennial industrial action since the pre-colonial era. Teachers, nurses and doctors' strikes are just a few examples.

After President Uhuru Kenyatta made the most unexpected statement on the current salary impasse, teachers are yet to believe that the Government failed to factor in its Budget the money to pay them.

The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is, why has the Government downtrodden teachers of this country?

Teachers have been on strike for the umpteenth time demanding for improved terms and conditions of service in vain.

They have also demanded for more employment of their ranks and improvement of terms of service which successive regimes have ignored.

Teaches are the only professionals exclusively empowered by the society to pass on examinable knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes and culture. No other group sets, invigilate, mark and moderate recognised exams for educating the public apart from tutors.

Any reader going through this article must have gone through the hands of a teacher and passed either formative or summative examinations.

Therefore, it is self-defeating for a country to mistreat, underpay and disrespect teachers.

At the heart of an excellent education system is a teaching profession that is truly noble, competent and efficient. To get such teachers is not by chance. A country must make deliberate and systematic policies to recruit, train, remunerate and retain teachers.

It is regrettable that the Government went ahead to factor in Sh53 billion for laptop computers programme at the expense of teachers’ welfare.

Teachers are on strike and Kenyans should empathise with them and compel the Government to put in place measures to end the stalemate.

We should all back teachers’ demands for the sake of the present generation and posterity.