Post by podp on Nov 17, 2015 8:59:55 GMT 3
[quote source="/post/133811/thread" timestamp="1447336820" Professor:
Mwalimu matters have never been easy for any government since the inception of KNUT. Even the professor of politics himself found it very hard to deal with. To buy time, past leadership opted to bribing the union while sustaining false hope among the teaching fraternity that they would have better remuneration and improved schemes of work. That never happened. In the meantime, teacher strikes became very rampant with children and parents being the bigger losers.
In the meantime, the country moved a step and came up with a new constitution that elevated the role of the TSC and birthed SRC. Teachers and their unions never seemed to have realized this change. When they called the latest strike, the government pointed them to this new reality alongside a clear message that their demands were unrealistic, untenable and not proceedurally canvassed. In his address to the nation, Uhuru made it clear that he would deal with the problem once and for all, meaning, he was prepared to pay the price, but never again should we see teachers running on the streets with suufurias, on their heads, rolling on the streets like Mike Sonko himself while the children they are supposed to be role models for cheer them on. That has brought us where we are now. The rest, as they say, is now history. We are we are and need to move forward.
Looking back, has the whole thing hurt Uhuru politically? Of course yes, only a fool can think otherwise. Was it worthy it? Absolutely. This is why:
1. The teachers' demand for 50-60% pay increase was going to leave a very big hole in the national budget and was therefore not just affordable. Even if we squeezed ourselves and managed to pay, it was not going to be a one-off payment, but a lifetime payment including pensions upon retirement, therefore not sustainable. It would also open flood gates for demands by other public sector employees.
2. It would render SRC useless and therefore defeating the very same reason we demanded for such a body. Rendering SRC useless would have taken us back to the era where MPs and other politicians including senior civil servants increased their pay arbitrarily.
3. It will help safeguard employees from overzealous and unscrupulous union officials like Sossion who put their interests ahead of the workers.
4. It will bring order to the labor system with very clear agreements guiding engagement over longer periods of time.
Moving forward, Uhuru will need to work very hard and win the confidence and support of teachers. He will need to show that his move was genuine and for the better good of the larger country. This will be achieved by how TSC and SRC handle the negotiations and drafting of the CBAs together with the unions. He has already shown goodwill by not only requesting TSC to consider releasing September salaries but also compensate those teachers like HMs and their deputies who were on duty through the entire period of the strike.
~~ Mwalimumkuu @nyumbakubwa ~~
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Therefore, our education should be adequately shaped to meet our development needs as much as it should impart in the learners invaluable social and skills that can enable them fit in the society. That our country has edged towards knowledge economy—just like many developed countries –is not in doubt. A knowledge economy is that which is driven by the people with relevant skills and competencies acquired through rigorous training.
tuko.co.ke/65358-education-kenya-problems-exam-cheating-teachers-strike.html
this appeared two days ago in above site but it is in 'Reader's Dialogue' in todays The Standard.
Somehow your 1 above is not convincing. we all know the Constitution has placed a big burden to our Treasury as MCAs, MPs, Senators, Governors, County Government, National Government and other post 2010 expenditure allocations have had to be factored in every post 2013 budget allocation. so 1 is too hollow to convince goodwill would have stopped inclusion in future budgetary allocations for teachers' demand.
Your 2 would have been holding water if SRC was able to stand up when the MPs threatened to disband them if they uttered any negativity to the MPigs when they went ahead and had their first order of business allocating themselves salaries and allowances they deemed fit. SRC has remained mum on the MPigs action. even PORK did not invoke 'can't pay, won't pay' mantra.
3 is a fallacy as we all know labor leaders unlike say PORK or MPigs or MCAs almost always get baptism of fire and rise through the ranks to the very top. and once at the top they can only stay there if they articulate workers needs not serve the MPigs, MCAs or PORK as say the leader of majority or leader of minority serves the party leaders first and citizens are second fiddle.
4 we need to interrogate whose order are you advocating for when we need to decide say after the widespread exam leakage, do we need to focus on exams? if we have widespread arson in schools should we continue having more boarding schools? if our universities are producing half baked graduates, do we need to re-orientate the courses offered?
you sound more like the author of this article.
The only beneficiaries, and for self-aggrandisement, were members of Knut. To demonstrate how true this is, look at the the timing of the strike; just when the exams that would shape the children’s future were around the corner. Exam period is the time when every caring Kenyan should be concerned about the welfare and future of our children.
Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000182758&story_title=Kenya-tsc-and-knut-should-embrace-dialogue
excellent title but obviously tilted in favour of status quo or rather TSC. compare with the editorial whose title attempts to match the contents.
Grandstanding has become the hallmark of Kenyan politics. Dialogue between the Government and the Opposition is frowned upon. The result is that there are a lot of things going wrong that would have been sorted out through round-table discussions.
Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000182761/kenyans-need-for-dialogue-cannot-be-overemphasised