The Ministry of Education now says it will pay the salary increment for July and August to all teachers in public schools by Friday this week, in efforts to ward off a looming crisis in the education sector. This is after the Treasury released Sh13.5 billion in the implementation of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos said on Tuesday that the resumption of public primary schools was registered on Monday amidst reports that many institutions had low student turnout on the first day, while a section of secondary school teachers under the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers was on the second day of their strike.
Monitoring School Reopening
CS Migos said they are closely monitoring the operations since third term schools reopened. Field officers across the country to assess the situation for teaching and learning activities in the entire country. Learner attendance has slowly improved even in the face of the teachers’ strike, with Knut calling off their impending strike.
Miguna emphasized that the government was involved in ensuring that the teachers’ grievances were handled, even as TSC works towards having all the public school teachers receive their increased salaries by the end of the week. The government is also engaging Kuppet to have it call off its strike and restore industrial harmony in the education sector.
GOVERNMENT EFFORTS AND FUTURE PLANS
Besides the salary issue, it was announced by President William Ruto that 20,000 more teachers would be employed to ease the staffing gaps in public schools before the year’s end. In additional news, the State has allocated Sh18.7 billion to permanently and pensionably employ the intern teachers with effect from January 2025.
The ministry is also collaborating with the Treasury to disburse the Sh3.3 billion in capitation and scholarship grants, including loans for trainees in national polytechnics and other technical and vocational education institutions.
CS Migos called on teachers who have not reported back to work to do so, specifically for the purpose of preparing learners for national examinations and seeing implementation of a fully covered syllabus.