Exit teachers' strike enters lecturers go slow

National deputy treasurer UASU Edwin Keter flanked by the Technical University of Kenya Academic Staff, Members of UASU to launch a strike at TUK, Nairobi. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Students in public universities are set to face disruptions in teaching and learning days after reopening.

Lecturers are readying for a nationwide strike, opening a new crisis in the uncertain education sector.

The University and Academic Staff Union (UASU) will on Wednesday issue a seven-day strike notice in protest of the government's failure to implement their 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

If they make true their threat, the universities will be battling twin crisis of the funding model and a frustrated teaching staff further complicating learning.

The Standard has established that efforts by the union's top officials to amicably resolve their grievances with the university leadership have proven futile.

This means that the 11,000 lecturers in public universities will down their tools beginning August 18 when the notice expires.

This will mark further disruption to the education sector, which has been grappling with a series of challenges in the recent past.

The strike threat comes a week after secondary school teachers ended their week-long strike that brought teaching and learning to a standstill nationwide.

The lecturer's strike is set to disrupt the new university academic calendar that began this September.

It could also see delays in graduation ceremonies lined up for October and November this year in various institutions.

Already, lecturers at the Technical University of Kenya and Moi University have been on strike since last week over partial salary pay.

The dons are demanding full payment of their salary arrears deferred by the universities over financial strain.

At the Technical University, Fred Sawenja, the chapter secretary general criticized the management for neglecting tutors' issues, citing poor teaching conditions.

Sawenja indicated that the lecturer's at the institution have been receiving monthly pay at between 60 and 68 percent.

While at Moi University over 900 academic staff held protests on the streets of Eldoret to protest over partial pay.

Besides the salary issue and delayed CBA implementation, they raised concerns that more than Sh4.1 billion deducted from their pension scheme had not been remitted.

This will be the first nationwide lecturer's strike in nearly four years since the last industrial action in 2021.