By James Wekesi
Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers working in various schools within Bungoma County have called for the full autonomy of JSS, and demanded absorption into permanent and pensionable terms.
According to William Waswa the Intern chair JSS representative Bungoma stated that they have suffered enough and now the strike is the only weapon to use for their grievances to be heard.
“We declare in one voice, a teacher cannot survive with seventeen thousand shillings (17,000/-) we’re not going back to class, we are demanding for confirmation of 44,000 teachers because internship is illegal” he stated.
His sentiments were echoed by Ledishah Nekesa the gender 1 Bungoma branch noting that the career progression of Junior secondary school teachers is not clear concerning what they are going through while giving out services to students at school.
Nekesa urged the stakeholders in education sector not to sideline them stating that they are all professional.
“Teachers in the country are going through depression, we demand better terms, mental wellness and a friendly environment for them to handle their issues” Ann Nabutola stated.
Emmanuel Wafula on his side criticized the government for not acting and solving the problems facing them day to day instead of ignoring them.
In a meeting where the speaker of the national assembly Moses Wetang’ula met teachers across Bungoma county at his home, Bungoma Woman Representative Catherine Wambilianga and teachers who attended the meeting claimed that they’re going through a hard time while looking for health services.
Ferdinand Wamalwa stated that hospitals selected to offer treatment services to teachers are less in relation to asserted agreement by the government, “it’s not possible for a teacher to offer Quality education when he’s sick because the government is always shifting accredited hospitals and we also demand to get services from Qualified doctor s” they stated.
The teachers are not happy with how their affairs are addressed in the country, he pointed out that the education cabinet secretary should come out and give teachers a clear solution to problems facing teachers for quality education in the country.
According to Augustine Kundu Luketelo the Bungoma county executive secretary of KUPPET instructed the ministry of education through the national government to confirm the 44,000 teachers in permanent and pensionable, failure so that they will continue with the strike to paralyze the education sector.
Pertaining autonomy, Augustine Luketelo has confirmed that president William Ruto’s orders to the ministry have not yet been worked on claiming that education cabinet secretary has failed them by delaying to fulfill the promise of making the Junior secondary schools to be independent.
He called on the health cabinet secretary to work shiftly and address the issues affecting teachers in accordance with the contribution they always do in every month, “there’s no way we will be in class as our colleagues are dying because of poor health services from hospitals” Luketelo stated.
He also urged other teachers in different places to down their tools and join them in full force so that the government can up and give solutions to their decries.
