Tuesday, January 6, 2015
State should stop issuing threats and get neutral arbiter for talks with Knut
Teachers protest outside the Kenya National Union of Teachers offices in Nairobi on January 5, 2015. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Teachers made good their pre-Christmas threat and paralysed learning in schools. Instead of reporting for work on Monday, they took to the streets to press for better pay.
The government reacted in its predictable fashion of intimidation — threatening them with salary cuts, ordering field officers to file daily attendance reports and threatening severe action against anybody who participates in the strike.
In this, the government has been hiding behind a court order obtained by Mr Musau Ndunda of the National Association of Parents that declared the strike illegal. But the teachers have not been cowed and they have stayed put.
True, we all have an inherent duty to obey the authority of courts, but then the government should stop hiding behind legalities and face the tutors at the negotiation table. Anything short of this will only make matters worse as both sides will take hard-line stances.
THREATS WONT DO
Threats will not do as the TSC Secretary seems to think. Nothing bears me out on this than the threats being shouted at the striking teachers and the plea by Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi to parents to take their children to school, as if that was a problem.
The contending sides should come up with a win-win situation; a middle ground between teachers’ demands and the government’s offer. Teachers cannot return to class empty-handed but the government may not be able to meet Knut’s 40 demands at once. Only a neutral arbiter can find that middle ground.
NICHOLAS KALOKI, Machakos
The teachers’ strike that has paralysed learning in public schools should be addressed expeditiously. Both the teachers and the government should cease their hardline stances and blame game in order for dialogue and an amicable solution to be found. As the saying goes, when two bulls fight, it is the grass that suffers.
It is a sad fact that many of the victims of the ongoing teachers’ strike are children of poor people. The buck stops with teachers and the government.
JOSEPH G. MUTHAMA, Thika