The Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA) through their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Benta Opande has called for breastfeeding centres to be established in schools to ensure lactating teachers are always close to their babies as they are growing.
The KEWOTA CEO said that a breastfeeding teacher can handle her duties better when their child is near them.
“We want to support the young female teachers who have young ones and feel the need to go home and breastfeed them. When the child is new to the teacher is more productive and quality education is enhanced,” said MS Opande.
Opande said that female teachers especially those with young children are forced to go home often during school days to breastfeed and hence spend a lot of time and money.
Opande was disillusioned as to why the government is still dragging its feet concerning the matter since a law was passed back in 2016 that compels the government to build breastfeeding facilities in all public institutions.
The KEWOTA official also proposed that the Ministry of Education establish a sporting event for teachers from the grassroots level to the national level in order to boost cohesion and mental health.
“We read in the news even about teachers committing suicide. We want the Ministry to be involved and address the issue of mental health because it is real and it cannot be ignored,” said Ms Opande.
On her part, the Director General of the State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education Elyas Abdi expressed concern over increased cases of teachers molesting learners and urged teachers to uphold integrity.
“When parents and the society trust you with their children, respect that trust as expected. We are getting reports that there are teachers out there who mishandle young students and it is unacceptable in our society,” said Abdi.