Just Incase teachers and their leaders want President William Ruto to increase their pay, outgoing Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has issued a challenge: they should change their approach.
While Speaking at the Post World Teachers Celebrations on Monday, October 10 in Kirinyaga County, the CS said that rallies and solidarity chanting will not earn them the increment they need.
He urged them to look internally for inspiration while they negotiate with the state to improve salaries and implement their collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
He explained that solidarity chants only sold them cheap arguing that no Government would take them seriously.
The work they (teachers) are already doing, there’s no way any government will be able to pay them. So, when you say solidarity and haki yetu (our rights), you’re selling yourself cheap. That is not to say that you should not to negotiate for better terms which is your right.
“I would like to tell you that anybody who teaches is a tutor starting with my late mother who taught me a lot of things when I was sitting next to the traditional jiko,” he explained.
Addressing the CBC, he stated that it was created to empower children via the tutorship of their teachers and parents.
He praised his mother for instilling knowledge in him despite her not having attended formal education.
“These are things that no teacher has ever taught me to date and that is the strength of the CBC, when we say that there should be parental engagement. There’s no parent who is illiterate.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) requested a renegotiation of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in a letter to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in January 2022.
The Union has been advocating for salary increases and promotions for teachers for some time now.
The KNUT boss also wanted the employer to stop making punitive teacher transfers and start making needs-based ones.
Oyuu recently proposed a 60 percent salary increment in a bid to cushion tutors from the ravaging economic challenges experienced across the country.
Speaking at the Kenya School of Government- Lower Kabete on Wednesday, October 5, Oyuu acknowledged that teachers’ performance is anchored on their welfare.
He added that his role as the KNUT boss mandates him to advocate for tutors to get a sizeable share of the national cake.
“Teachers can only work if they are motivated and well paid. I propose a 60 percent salary increment regardless of the economic status of the country,” Oyuu stated during the World Teachers Day Celebrations.
