The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary-General Collins Oyuu has come to the defence of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Nancy Macharia.
Oyuu has warned that attacks on the TSC CEO and Commissioners are not necessary and that politicians should stop attacking the independent commission.
According to Oyuu, former KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion and other union ‘rebels’ are to blame for directing attacks on the Commission.
Oyuu said that the Commissioners should be given space to carry out their mandate and that politicians should desist from unnecessary attacks which could affect their performance and what they have achieved so far.
This comes after Wilson Sossion appeared on K24 TV commenting on the possibility of him becoming the Cabinet Secretary for Education.
In his response, Sossion said that it is only President-Elect William Ruto who knows whether he is fit to take on such a role.
Sossion is a former nominated Member of Parliament (MO) and played a key role in campaigning for the President-Elect.
“The President decided who serves where,” said Sossion on K24 TV on Wednesday after he was asked about possibly filling the Education CS post or that of Permanent Secretary.
Sossion praised Kenya Kwanza’s charter as an important tool for transforming the education sector and the welfare of teachers.
“My business was to support Kenya Kwanza in its philosophy of the bottom-up economic model. It was in drafting the charter and I am happy because the charter is good for education and teachers,” he said.
Wilson Sossion, resigned as the KNUT secretary general in June last year following disagreements within the union and strained relations with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
Sossion had been a key member of KNUT’s administration structure since 2013 and he also served as a Nominated MP.
The Kenya Kwanza administration is taking over from the Jubille regime soon and among the reforms, it could undertake is the establishment of a national education fund to mobilize grants, bursaries and scholarships from private and public sponsors to cater for non-tuition costs.
On its education charter, Ruto is planning to address the 116,000 teacher deficit in public schools within two financial years by recruiting 58,000 teachers every year from the pool of 300,000 trained but unemployed teachers in the country.
According to the President-elect, this will be achieved by using the Kshs. 25 billion that his government is planning to allocate for the same.
Double funding for the school feeding programme (from Kshs. 2 million to Kshs. 4 million) and a low-cost boarding school will be built in arid areas and shall increase the number of vocational training centres, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.
Tuesday the 13th of September has been set as the swearing-in date and has already been declared as a public holiday.