Secondary school teachers have vowed to down their tools when schools re-open in January if the government will not have met the 200 percent salary increment.
Speaking to our reporter on Sunday, Laikipia Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) secretary, Ndung’u Wangenye said that members of the union will get involved in what he termed as a ‘high voltage strike’ if the increment, which is one of the 12 demands the teachers are asking for, will not have been implemented.
“Our demands are only 12, unlike the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) which has more demands,” said Wangenye
He said that among the demands is the implementation of per diem rates contained in a government circular of November 2009, which put Sh6,500 per day for teachers in job L and M, when they attend official duties in major towns in the country away from their work stations.
Wangeye further revealed that the circular issued by the then permanent secretary in the office of Prime Minister, Titus Ndambuki also increased per diem from Sh3000 to Sh4,500 for government officers going to other big towns like Nakuru, Eldoret, Nyeri and Naivasha among others.
“Secondary school teachers are government officers and should enjoy enhanced allowances when undertaking duties outside their stations,” said Wanyege.
Other demands the teachers have put forward include a house allowance of 50 percent of basic salary, a comprehensive medical cover, post graduate scheme of service and annual leave, scholarship programmes among others.
Wangenye also said that Kuppet could not support their Knut counterparts for a strike during end year national examination time they never wanted to inconvenience learners.
“We did not want to tie learners to our demands and that is why we told our members to go supervise, invigilate and mark the examination and also wait for results to be released,” added Wanyege.
He said that Kuppet will rally its members to go on a strike dubbed ‘Okoa Mwalimu strike’ in a show down that will force the government to meet teachers’ demands.