Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Masaba branch now wants Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to solve under staffing crisis in area institutions to avoid overworking teachers.
Speaking on Wednesday when he paid Nyakongo Secondary School a courtesy call, branch secretary Meshack Ombongi said the area was short of over 200 teachers in both primary and secondary schools.
He said this has led to schools struggling to fill the void by overloading existing teaching staff.
He said his office had written to the teachers' employer and warned of advising their teachers who were overworked to withdraw their services.
“Our region is short of over 200 teachers and TSC is aware. We want them solve the crisis because many of our members are being overworked. In fact, we will soon advise our members to strictly adhere to the number of lessons they are supposed to teach per week if the problem isn’t solved,” he said.
Ombongi said area institutions wee struggling to recruit Board of Management teachers due to delayed releasing of funds by the government and noted that the population of children had risen making it difficult for teachers in service to handle it.
“TSC must know that the government normally delays releasing of funds and that is a fact. Also, many schools are witnessing increased enrolment of children to schools. In a nutshell, we are not going to condone the habit of our teachers taking extra lessons yet the government has a duty to employ more teachers,” he added.