The government of Kenya should consider complying with the industrial court order of 2015 that compelled it to increase the salary of teachers or prepare to build more prisons for learners, a section of Nyamira politicians have said.
Led by aspiring Nyamira Governor Charles Mochama at a funeral ceremony on Friday, they accused the government of shortchanging teachers and said the sector may experience acute shortage since many learners will avoid teaching profession.
“Time has come for our government to consider implementing the industrial court’s rule or prepare to build more prisons. Teachers must be respected at all costs and of not, we will have many of them bowing out of the profession for other well-paying jobs,” Mochama said.
Former Kitutu Masaba MP Mwancha Okioma on his part accused the government of tolerating corruption at top government offices and for failing to pay teachers their due.
“It’s true that many learners will no longer be interested in teaching profession. We will have an acute shortage of teachers and this will be dangerous in our society. Many learners will bow out of school and start engaging in criminal related activities,” he said.
“It’s important therefore for the government to pay teachers or be ready to build more prisons to hold errant students who will in the long-run drop out of school and fully engage themselves in criminal activities. There is high corruption in government yet the president cannot tame those who are persistently mentioned,” he added.
Gesima MCA Ken Atuti urged the ministry of education and teachers’ employer TSC to reach a truce before the matter escalates.
“The government should solve the pay rise issue once and for all. Otherwise, our education system will rot and disintegrate. Let us not gamble with our teachers. We do not want to see scenarios where professional teachers bow out leaving void in our institutions which can result to a high number of school dropouts,” he said.