Magoha for teachers: what not to do for pay rise?
Magoha for teachers: what not to do for pay rise?
Outgoing Education Secretary George Magoha challenged teachers and their leaders to change tactics if they want President William Ruto to raise their salaries.
At the Post World Teachers Celebrations held in Kirinyaga County on Monday, October 10, the CS argued that demonstrations and solidarity chants would not give them the raise they so desperately need.
He begged them to look inward and find a better way to push for better pay and make sure the state honors their collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
He explained that chants of solidarity only sold them cheaply, arguing that no government would take them seriously.
Education CS at the Post World Teachers Celebrations held in Kirinyaga County on Monday, October 10, 2022.
“The work they (teachers) are already doing, there’s no way a government can afford them. So if you show solidarity and haki yetu (our rights), you sell yourself cheaply. That’s not to say you shouldn’t negotiate better terms, which is your right.
“I would like to tell you that everyone who teaches is a tutor, starting with my late mother who taught me many things when I was in addition to the traditional jiko,” he explained.
He turned to the TSWT, explaining that it was set up to empower the children with the help of both their teachers and their parents.
He praised his mother for teaching him knowledge, despite her lack of formal education.
“These are things that no teacher has taught me until now and that is the strength of the TSWT, when we say there must be parental involvement. There is no parent that is illiterate.
“I don’t look extremely good and intelligent and my mother has never been to school, so excuse me for spouting nonsense,” he added.
In January 2022, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) wrote to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in an effort to renegotiate the 2021-2025 CBA agreement.
The union has pushed for promotions and salary increases for teachers.
Further, the KNUT boss asked for an overturn of the punitive transfers of teachers arguing that the employer should transfer teachers from one station to another based on needs.
As of July 2022, teachers were unhappy with Magoha’s performance in reviewing teachers’ salaries.
