Address teachers’ plight
As schools countrywide reel from the effects of the ongoing heavy rains and floods, those in the north-eastern region are also grappling with two other serious challenges.
One is insecurity, as a result of terrorism, and the other is a perennial teacher shortage. The region ranks high as a hardship area, but it is terrorism that has hit schools particularly hard, as teachers from upcountry fearing for their safety, stayed away. One can understand this, as there have been cases of non-local teachers being targeted by terrorists. However, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) interdicted some last September for refusing to return to their work stations. This is so, yet the national examination candidates will sit the same tests as their counterparts in other parts of the country. This makes it extremely difficult for them to compete favourably, and will disadvantage them in future. It is, of course, a problem that cannot be solved overnight.
More efforts are needed to secure the region. However, a more immediate problem is the plight of scores of teachers, who have failed to return to their work stations.
Their security concern is genuine. The TSC cannot retain on its payroll any teacher that is not working. It can also not grant transfers to everybody out of areas deemed to be insecure. The current problem worsened in 2014 when Al-Shabaab terrorists killed 28 non-local teachers aboard a bus that was travelling from Mandera to Nairobi. This led to transfers of non-local teachers. It is, however, a pity that some well-trained teachers are idling at home or doing menial jobs to make ends meet after being sacked. They feel abandoned as the National Assembly had barred the TSC from interdicting them. Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has pledged to deploy more teachers to the region and increase funding to ensure students get quality education.
While this is laudable, the case of the interdicted teachers should also be reviewed sooner rather than later.
