Embu Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) branch secretary Mr Josphat Kathumi has implored the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to hasten the rerouting of delocalized teachers to reduce the ongoing shortage of teachers in schools.
The Embu Branch Secretary said that hundreds of teachers who moved out of the county due to the delocalization policy have sought to reroute in vain for a long time.
“We are appealing to the Regional Directors of Education to support the program and work closely with TSC to have Embu teachers working elsewhere who have sought transfers to be returned to the County immediately for the sake of learners,” said Mr Kathumi.
Kathumi blamed the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for deliberately not implementing a resolution made by parliament cancelling the unpopular delocalization policy. The delocalization policy was implemented irregularly by the government in a hurry leading to irregularities.
The policy has been claimed to have been used to punish teachers for various reasons.
The KNUT Secretary said that delays in the movement of the teachers were unfair to people from Embu and he wondered why the Commission was working against a clear resolution from parliament.
“We want the teachers back to Embu as per the resolution of parliament,” he said.
The Unionist told members of the media that the current shortage of more than 200 teachers in various schools in the County to what, in his view was ‘deliberate negligence’ on the part of the Commission in addressing the issue.
The shortage of teachers and the continued disruption of learning due to few teachers being available has caused a significant strain on the teachers with large numbers of lessons continuing to have a negative effect on the successful teaching of innocent learners in the County.
“The shortage if not dealt with haste will have very negative effects on the performance of Embu children in their national examinations and all that will squarely be blamed on the TSC, the same body which is supposed to promote campaigns for successful education in the County,” complained Kathumi.
Kathumi also claimed that many schools in the county do not have school principals and urged TSC t recruit the required personnel to make the management of schools easier. However, he said calls on the Commission to address the shortage of school administrators had been unsuccessful.
He said that even teaching in junior secondary schools had been affected due to a large number of lessons with teachers in lower primary schools being forced to extend their services to the JSS to alleviate the problem.
“Some teachers are overstretched due to the many lessons they are handling and unless the government wants to fail in the implementation of JSS education, it has to hire more teachers and intensify training programs to ensure the present team of teachers are well skilled to tackle the JSS students,” said Mr Kathumi.