Most teachers engage in drinking due to frustrations they encounter as a result of delays in the payment of their salaries, Kuppet Uasin Gishu branch Secretary General Rosemary Murundu has said.
Speaking on Wednesday in Eldoret, Murundu said that coping with stress continues to be a major issue confronting teachers, leading to most of them getting addicted to alcohol and eventually dying from excessive drinking.
“The issue of low salaries is one of the major problems that teachers have to contend with, the issue of pay continue to arise very often Teachers still cannot figure out why they should suffer before they receive their meager salaries,” said Murundu.
She added that most teachers now supplement their incomes by engaging in paltry trading and sometimes neglect their students.
“Teachers have contended with a crop of pupils who do not seem to be interested in education, but when there is no motivation, they get frustrated,” added Murundu.
She further said that teachers in some schools have to operate welfare systems that pull resources together so that they can help each other.
She further called for the government to do something about the plight of teachers, by indicating that it is prepared to correct the disparities between teachers' salaries and those of other professions.
This comes after the TSC moved to court to appeal over 50-60% teacher salary increment as ruled by the court on June 30.