Business as usual in Mandera schools despite ongoing teachers strike

 A wooden Illustration at Buru Buru Boys

Learning activities seem not to be affected in schools within Mandera County courtesy of the county government intervention. Following the mass exodus of teachers from the county following the infamous November 23,2014 Al-Shabaab bus attack that left 28 dead majority being teachers .The county government of Mandera took up the function of providing education which remains a function of the national government. Teachers’ unions, Kenya National Unions of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education had advised their members not to report to their respective work stations at counties in Northern Kenya until the government is able to guarantee security, something that has not been done to date since teachers boycotted the prerogative of their employer Teachers Service Commission to report to their respective work stations citing insecurity in the region.

 Mandera County is prone to terrorism attacks by Somalia based rag tag Militia Al-Shabaab due to its close proximity to Somalia which is the operation base of the militia.

According to Mandera County governor Ali Roba, the county has not been affected by the national strike .

“Teachers strike in Mandera has been there for the last nine months,” said the governor.

Efforts to persuade teachers to return back to their respective stations even after relative calmness had returned to the county bore no fruitno meaningful progress has taken place. Depriving students of education was not an issue which the county administration could have taken lightly considering close to 900 teachers refused to go back to their respective stations forcing the county administration to turn on untrained teachers to fill in the gap. According to the governor the county has a total of 1320 teachers in its payroll 600 primary school teachers, 220 secondary school teachers and 460 Early Childhood Education teachers who are given a monthly upkeep of 10,000ksh per month. “It may not seem much but at least we are not sitting back waiting for teachers who might not come back, we have been marginalized in all sectors and education to the young generation will be our way out,” said the governor. He added that students from the county are more than prepared for national examinations even if they were to be done tomorrow. 

Pupils at Township primary school following a class

Counties in Northern Kenya have always performed poorly when it comes to education as witnessed during the ranking of national examinations.

Governor Roba promised that the county will provide full scholarships to any student from Mandera who will secure admission to any Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs), Kenya Medical Training College, public university’s to pursue any course in Education or Medicine.

“Any resident of Mandera County who has a letter of admission to any public university, teachers training college and Kenya medical training college should submit a copy of his admission letter to the County executive for education to get the scholarship.”

This move comes in a bid to reduce the deficit the county experiences in the health and education sectors.

Class in progress at Mandera DEB primary school