White smoke is in the offing as tutors put it for teachers employed by school management boards.
This is good news for the numerous greuates who have been forced to live a dog’s life for over four months now.
For the past few weeks, the mainstream media has highlighted the plight of teachers employed by the BOM and finally, someone has paid attention.
Confirming the good news, education CAS Zachary Kinuthia said that the ministry has heard the cry of these teachers and realized how hard they have been hit by the pandemic.
Consequently, the government is planning to issue stipends to the affected teachers and compensate them for the tough times.
“As government, we have heard their cries. I want to assure them something will be done,” said Mr Kinuthia.
“We expect whatever the Government will do on this matter, the BoM will consider not just the BoM teachers but also the rest of the BoM staff such as cooks, matrons and even watchmen,” stated Kinuthia.
He further noted that the situation had grown dire for the tutors as they depended on the management for their daily bread.
Our attempt to reach the CAS was, however, futile as he did not pick our calls.
Since the pandemic struck, a section of teachers have turned to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Kazi Mtaani initiative to make ends meet.
The National Hygiene Program (NHP), dubbed Kazi Mtaani, is a national initiative designed to cushion the most vulnerable but able-bodied citizens living in informal settlements from effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Enlisted workers earn a daily wage of Kshs 400 and payments are made once a week through mobile money transfer.
Private school teachers and teachers enrolled in the Board of Management (BOM) programs were the most affected by CS Magoha’s directive as government affirmed that public school teachers would receive their monthly salaries during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The youth program is now offering a chance to some of the affected teachers to earn a living as others resort to various menial jobs such as construction.
As part of the state’s plan to have a conducive learning environment when state decides to open schools, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) boss Wilson Sossion argued that the plan would be unsuccessful if a deficit of 400,000 teachers was not covered for the new teacher-student ratio to be implemented.
In this effect, he suggested that all teachers hired by school boards to be absorbed by the Teachers Service Commission to boost the Numbers.
