Dr. Nancy Macharia has been restored as the Teachers Service Commission CEO for another five-year term. Her previous term expired in the past week and it seems she impressed her employers with how she has handled teachers’ affairs with an iron fist. If you are on the government’s side, it is hard to disagree.
The TSC boss is well known for how she has streamlined how TSC conducts its affairs beginning with tough policies and confronting teachers’ unions head-on. The way she handled teachers’ unions like the Kenya National Union of Teachers may not please many but she has been a success. The teachers’ unions are been known to be united for a common cause for years while fighting for teachers’ demands that sometimes have been based on what teachers had been promised by former governments. However, in recent times that has not been the case with notable friction between KUPPET and KNUT.
For KNUT they did not receive her introduced policies like the career development program and appraisals and the delocalization of teachers. Besides, KNUT also did not agree when it came to issues like the introduction of the new competency-based curriculum and the implementation of the five-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that ran between 2016 and 2021.
The two unions clashed in court several times and TSC went even as far as withholding KNUT dues. Under Dr. Nancy Macharia’s reign, Mr. Wilson Sossion was also deregistered as a teacher and TSC cut off relations with KNUT. Within KNUT itself, disgruntled members ousted Wilson Sossion and replaced him with Hesbon Otieno who was his deputy. Mr. Wilson Sossion was however to be restored to his position by a court thereafter. Because of these events, there was a mass exodus of teachers registered with KNUT to KUPPET and Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA).
At the time of writing this article, the number of teachers registered with KUPPET is close to 80,000 while those who have applied to join are more than 31,000. Besides, over 18,000 heads of schools and deputies have left KNUT and joined KUPPET.
Dr. Nancy Macharia’s reign is set to deal with the effects of COVID-19 and then continue with controlling the teachers’ unions to ensure they do not strike as frequently as they used to. The efforts of the TSC boss regarding the teachers’ unions have been excellent, to say the least as the TSC CEO seat used to be a hot one with constant strikes from teachers.
From Teacher.co.ke all we can say is “Good Luck” to the new boss though she knows her role all too well as she takes office for a second time.