Tag Archives: children

#PERFORMANCE CONTRACT

Posted on by Standard Reply

teachers work

“Teachers I am not yet done with you.” That is the message the government is trying to mutely pass to Kenyan teachers. The ministry of education intends to implement new education regulation which will pin down the teacher who is already sick and tired of intimidation from the government.
The new regulation requires the teacher to sign a performance contract with his/her employer who is the Teacher Service Commission. The Cabinet Secretary is of the opinion that over 50% of the teachers countrywide are not working. That is a statement that surprises many teachers when they are going an extra mile to do what can be done for learners to pass the examination.
It is with deep sorrow that currently teachers have not received their September 2015 salary. The ministry of education should be reminded that teachers are already in “a performance contract” be in the know that it is only a teacher who has to prepare a series of professional documents for teaching before entering the classroom.
The schemes of work are prepared for the whole term which guides the teacher on the work to be covered on a particular period of time. In addition to that, a teacher prepares a daily lesson plan for each subject to be taught, which gives a step by step guide on how to deliver the content therein. It is also mandatory that the same teacher prepares lesson notes for each subject to be taught.
And to intensify the whole matter the teacher is supposed to keep a record of the work covered everyday and a progress record for each learner.
All the mentioned documents are inspected by the officials from the ministry of education when they visit the institution. After the official working hours the teacher is expected to sit down and prepare all aforementioned documents for the following day.
When the government is grumbling about the performance; we wonder if they have forgotten the huge numbers of students in classrooms. It is very unreasonable that a single teacher can handle 70-100 children in a class alone. To heighten the matter, the learning conditions are terrible, the learning resources are not available and the teacher is required to improvise and use locally available material as teaching aids.
Did the world know that teaching profession is one in many professions? And yes they are! Because, they, at one point become nurses to the pupils in class. When a child falls sick it is the duty of the teacher to attend to the child. Teachers are counselors. Parents have left their responsibility to teachers. The already overworked teacher is required to spare his/her time to offer guiding and counseling to the learners. Teachers are lawyers, preachers and even parents to the children that they teach. When parents stopped doing their responsibility we saw the outcome at Eldoret and recently in Nairobi where school going children were caught in a night club. That was direct effect of the long strike that took place and children became indiscipline. Teachers now are faced with a challenge to rectify such behaviours.
If the teacher is to be subjected to more performance contract, oh! Because they are already in a contract, it would be fair if it could be in conditions. The teacher to learner ratio should closely be looked into. And with that effectively dealt with, the teacher will be able to handle the learners well. It is important that the government ensure that learning materials and resources are available for both the teacher and the learner. The question still lingers why would the teacher still be subjected to prepare all the documents mentioned earlier? It would be prudent the poor teacher be left to have only the chalk and the pen.
It is an allowable effort that the Cabinet Secretary wants to streamline the education sector. But such efforts should not entirely be meant to intimidate the teachers who are already doing a commendable work. Such regulations should at least encounter various consultations. Let teachers breath they are already in a performance contract.

FIVE WEEKS LATER

Posted on by Standard 1

 

The reality of empty bank accounts belonging to 288,060 teachers with 40,000 claimed to have been paid, denote an enormous injury for the teachers. It has been a take up arms between the Teachers Service Commission and the teachers’ unions, which has led to the government showing a valiant spirit of defying court orders. After a long cross swords, it’s a question of who had the last laugh between the TSC and the teachers. Mr Justice Abuodha ordered that there would be no victimization of teachers and their September salary, but according to the Secretary General William Sossion , TSC and the government are up to the violation of those orders. The unions have put it clear that they have suspended their strike for 90 days as ordered by the court, it however remains unclear; should we expect another strike early 2016? Let this be pondered because the unions expect the government to comply with the court order awarded by Justice Nduma Nderi awarding teachers 50-60 per cent pay rise.

The bell rang today on 5th October 2015 for assembly after 34 days later after schools were desserted and padlocks remained on the gates in all Public Schools. Teachers were on low tones and could not fail to show their disappointment on the back to class order. They had nothing to rejoice about and hence the learners as innocent as they looked; they could not understand why the “holiday” was too long. Perhaps the USA president Barack Obama changed term dates when he visited Kenya in July. It is for fact that all the candidates fear had started to practically eat a hole in their hearts because they were uncertain of undertaking their national examinations which hang around. The teachers had an opportunity to encourage the learners to embark on their school work, having in mind that examinations are just about to start.

The whole controversy will then shift to the relief teachers employed by TSC this week on contract basis. The TSC had earlier advertised 70,000 vacancies for teachers, which looked like a weapon to scare teachers, especially those who are about to retire and those who had received posting letters in August. The employment and Labour relations Court Judge Nduma Nderi stopped TSC from hiring the teachers which is a case filed by the Trade Union Congress of Kenya. Rumour has it that 10,000 applicants had already entered an agreement of three months before the exercise was stopped. To these teachers, confusion and nightmare will mingle together before the whole issue is resolved by the court. Since everybody is moving to court for justice, the relieved teachers may also move to the court to seek for fair play. There is still a huge shortage of teachers in Public schools. Instead of the TSC taking these teachers into a contract basis, it is actually an opportunity of employing them permanently.

After five weeks on strike, teachers’ expectation has to be put on pending and lamentably enough, the teachers lack the pay rise as well as their September salary. They have gone back to their duties mournful and thinking of unpaid September bills. The schemes work and lesson plans were ready for the content to be delivered today, despite the teachers’ employer shying away from addressing the September salary issue. Teaching is a call and therefore, teachers have opted go back to school to perform their task diligently. The parents and learners especially the candidates, have a reason to smile again following the back to class order. Teachers weep NOT.