Youth polytechnic instructors in Nyamira County have threatened to go on strike in the next two weeks to agitate for better terms of employment.
Addressing reporters in Nyamira town Monday morning, the instructors complained of severe under-staffing and infrastructure problems that had made them unable to discharge their duties effectively.
They said there were about 70 full time instructors in the twelve youth polytechnics within the county, with an additional eight part time instructors who had not received pay for the last four months.
The instructors complained that the vocational training institutions had low enrollment following the withdrawal of the Subsidised Youth Polytechnic Tuition (SYPT) fund in which the national government was paying Sh15, 000 per student per year.
This, they said, had made it difficult for the boards of management to pay instructors employed by the boards as well as avail training materials, since most parents could not afford the fees charged by the institutions.
“Since the youth polytechnics were devolved, the national government stopped releasing the funds to the institutions,” said the association’s chairman Philip Omari.
He said they had hoped the county government would continue subsidizing the fees for the students, but it had so far not done so despite the same having been voted for in the current county budget.
The instructors called for the reconstitution of the youth polytechnics’ boards of management, saying some had stayed for more than 10 years.