A deal made between teachers and the school ended a one-week strike.
Last week, there was a teachers’ strike that stopped all work in secondary schools. On Monday, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) met for the whole day and decided to end the strike.
In the evening of Monday, Kuppet stopped the strike and told all public high school teachers to go back to work. There were claims of arm-twisting and not meeting the teachers’ demands at the time of the statement.
But union officials said the decision was based on recent progress made on the tough problems that led to the strike in the first place.
It came as a surprise because just 24 hours before, on Sunday, the National Governing Council, which makes decisions for the union, met in Nairobi and decided to keep the strike going until the boss signed a deal to let them go back to work.
Teenagers walk through Kakamega town on September 2, 2024, as the second week of the teachers’ strike began.
Kuppet was able to get the previously cut medical budget restored, which means that teachers can get medical care in both state and private hospitals.
Also, a lot of progress has been made on the long-overdue raises, and the TSC is now working hard to find the money to promote as many teachers as possible.
“To follow the court’s order and make it easier to keep talking, we’ve decided to end the strike and ask all of our teachers to come back to class.” “We are committed to working with the commission to make sure that the outstanding issues are resolved quickly,” said Akelo Misori, Secretary-General of Kuppet.
“The implementation of the 2021–2025 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has been our main concern.” We know how hard it is because teachers have been turned away from hospitals, even those who are seriously ill. This is because their medical insurance has been compromised. “Thank goodness, we were able to restore the previously cut medical allocation,” he said.
But the deal did not go through without any problems. People who were close to the talks said that the sides had disagreements at different points, which is what caused the long meeting. The TSC planned a news conference for 2:30pm, but it didn’t happen until after 5:40pm.
Edward Obwocha, Kuppet’s secretary for secondary education, walked out of the meeting demanding a clear plan for getting back to work. He wasn’t at the news conference that the union and TSC held together.
The union emphasized how hard they were working to get teachers who have been playing important roles without getting the right pay paid for them. They said they were hopeful that the current talks with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission would lead to a good solution.
The portal for this process is now open, and the Teachers Service Commission is constantly looking for funds to promote as many teachers as possible. We want to let our teachers and members know about this. “We have also been told that the problem of teachers holding important jobs without getting the right acting allowances or special allowances will be fixed soon,” Mr. Misori said.
“We are still talking with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission about how to make sure that all teachers in these positions get the attention they deserve, and a lot of progress has already been made,” he said.
According to Mr. Misori, the long break in learning made parents worried about their kids’ academic growth and made them feel uncertain and angry. Students were also left in limbo because they didn’t know when they could go back to studying and getting ready for the end-of-year tests.
The union said they really understood how hard things were for both parents and kids, and they admitted that the strike had a negative effect on both.
“We know that teachers are the backbone of this country, and we understand how stressful it is for parents when their kids have to go home because of the ongoing strike.” “On behalf of the union, we want to stress how important it is for us to show strong leadership,” Mr. Misori said.
At first, the strike was called to push for the 2021–2025 CBA to be put into place, among other things.
Nancy Macharia, the head of the TSC, said that the government had given money for the second part of the CBA to be put into action. The second part, which started on July 1, was put into place by TSC last month.
“The Commission is happy to confirm that the government paid for the second phase of the CBA to go into effect, which was good for all of our teachers.” We made sure that the second part of the CBA was paid for, along with any late fees. “We are determined to solve these problems with the help of our teachers and unions,” Ms. Macharia said.
The head of the TSC also said that 51,200 teachers have already been promoted, and that more will be promoted as money allows.
It says that 130,000 teachers have been stuck in the same job groups for years, so Kuppet wanted them to be promoted.
“The commission will continue to support teachers as long as Parliament gives it money.” Once Kuppet turns in their list of requests, talks about a new CBA will begin. Both parties have decided that any remaining issues will be resolved through further negotiations, as is customary,” she said.
“We want to thank Kuppet for looking into other ways to settle disagreements and for agreeing to end the strike.” We want to thank our teachers for the great work they do every day to make sure that learning goes smoothly in our schools. We want all of our teachers to go back to work so that we can keep helping this country. “What’s best for the child and the country comes first,” she said.
But Mr. Obwocha didn’t agree with his union coworkers and left, saying he was angry that the strike had been called off.
“The NGC met on Sunday and agreed that if there is a recipe for getting people back to work, the document can be sent online for approval.” That’s why I stormed out—they were in a hurry to sign without anything real to back up their words.
TSC said in a statement that money has been set aside to “retool” junior high school teachers instead of making them permanent employees. The teachers have been complaining that they don’t have stable jobs.
One of the JS teachers, John Melvin, said, “They were able to settle the review of career progression guidelines, remittance of third-party deductions, promotion of teachers, medical scheme, and start of the new round of CBA implementation. But they fell short on the confirmation of 46,000 JS intern teachers, which to them is a non-issue.”
A deal made between teachers and the school ended a one-week strike.
