The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), two of EI’s national affiliates, have called on the Government to engage in honest social dialogue to ensure quality education in the country.
The national Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) needs to promote more teachers. That’s according to Wilson Sossion, the newly elected KNUT General Secretary, who addressed the 56th KNUT Delegates' Conference on 9 December. “Despite putting more pressure on TSC, the latter has still yet to promote 23,000 teachers as promised,” he said.
KNUT has given TSC 16 days to promote teachers or face industrial action when schools reopen.
KNUT: Teachers must be involved in dialogue
Sossion said it was wrong for Kenyan children to be denied access to quality education simply because the Government is failing to handle education matters seriously. “As this trade union’s new General Secretary, I will be very firm with the government on education matters,” he added.
On the teacher/pupil ratio, KNUT will exert pressure on the government so that the appropriate ratio can be agreed and signed in a collective bargaining agreement. Sossion said this will lead the government to employ more teachers, while the national treasury should provide funds for this. These are measures that will contribute to achieving excellence in the education sector, he said.
Stating that teachers’ salaries must be commensurate with their terms of service, Sossion said: “We will urge the Government to ensure that more money is used to fund better education in the country.”
He went on to say it would be wrong for TSC to formulate policies affecting teachers without engaging them.
KUDHEIHA: EI’s intervention requested
KUDHEIHA, another EI affiliate, has also sought improved conditions for those working in the education sector.
“We ask EI to put pressure on our Government in order to fulfil the urgent need for a common Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the non-teaching staff in educational institutions,” said KUDHEIHA General Secretary, Albert Njeru, in a letter to EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen on 7 November. “This is to encourage equity in all educational institutions, for example a common CBA for all universities, another common CBA for all colleges and tertiary institutions, a common CBA for all secondary and primary schools. This will greatly help in solving most of the challenges the institutions are facing.”
Some of the challenges KUDHEIHA is facing, due to lack of a common CBA in educational institutions for non-teaching staff, are:
· No salary increment for up to five years or more for some workers
· An increase in the number of strikes instigated by unsatisfied workers
· Lack of defined terms and conditions of service for non-teaching staff resulting in low morale at work
· Lack of decent work and fairness
· Lack of social protection and job security
· Lack of safety in the workplace
· Underpayment of non-teaching staff, below general government wage guidelines
· Personal remuneration meant for workers is being diverted to pay teacher members of the Board of Governors (management) and to pay for tours for teachers
· Harassment and sometimes dismissal by the Board of Governors of non-teaching staff who exercise their right to join a trade union
About 90 per cent of all cases KUDHEIHA has in the Industrial Court are against individual Boards of Governors. This could be avoided, providing the Ministry of Education facilitates the conclusion of a collective bargaining agreement outlining workers’ terms of service, i.e. salaries, allowances, disciplinary procedures, etc.
EI: Unity among national unions crucial
“We welcome the fact that affiliates have the same approach and demands of the Government,” said EI Chief Regional Coordinator Assibi Napoe. “The teacher unions need to steer each other away from political arguments and engage more in pursuing the educational agenda. This can nevertheless only be effective when the Government engages in social dialogue and truly accepts organisations representing education professionals. We therefore urge it to do so.”
She also welcomed the fact that the newly launched EI Unite for Quality Education campaign will encourage unity among education unions, in Kenya and worldwide, under the rallying motto of free quality public education for all.