TSC News: This is why Teaching in Kenya should not be classified as a white collar job

TSC News: This is why Teaching in Kenya should not be classified as a white collar job

A  critical response to those who think that teachers should earn a pittance for a living

There have been numerous debates revolving around teachers salary increments.

The saddest and depressing part of it all is the bottomless pit of ignorance from which most sadists who for reasons best known to them find all sorts of excuses not to double teachers’ salaries argue from.

If i had the power to even triple teachers’ salaries in Kenya, i would.

My point of departure today is Ms Linah Anyango and Peter Tabichi Mokaya.

If the first name does not sound a bell in your mind, I do forgive your ignorance. Ms Anyango has been all over the headlines after being selected from 12, 000 nominations and applicationsfrom more than 140 countries to compete for the coveted Kshs 100 million Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2020, a prize that Peter Mokaya Tabichi bagged last year.

I have come to agree with whoever invented the saying that a prophet is never accepted at his home.

Is teaching in Kenya a white collar job?

Ms Anyango, the Kshs 100 million Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2020 nominee has proved to many that teaching in Kenya cannot be categorized as a white collar job.

Unknown to many is the fact that Ms Anyango quit TSC and joined a private school in Nairobi three months ago.

In September 2019, Ms Anyango got a lifetime opportunity through the US embassy in Nairobi to undergo a six-week technology training in Texas but TSC refused to grant her permission to advance her career. So she opted out.

Ms Anyango had taught for eight years at Changamwe Secondary School before resigning from the TSC.

Therefore, I have been a dupe thinking that teaching in Kenya is a white collar job. Much as teachers in kenya must undergo formal training before being recruited by the Teachers Service Commission, teaching in kenya cannot befit the term white collar job.

To start with, the pay is too low. secondly, there is no opportunity for growth.

Lastly, teaching goes beyond just internalizing content and guiding learners to acquire knowledge.

At the wake of Coronavirus in kenya, the indispensable role that Kenyan teachers play has come to the limelight.

President Uhuru Kenyatta gave a directive requiring all learning institutions to be shut down.

The big question is “Where are the Kenyan learners right now?”

They are all over the place. Roaming from street A to street B. Parents have also thrown caution to the wind. They do not give a hoot about the whereabouts of their children.

They let them roam as if they are oblivious of the negative outcomes that may arise from their kids not being in school.

It is just like any other holiday here in Kenya.