Don’t bully teachers who speak the truth

I stand with Martha Omollo, the teacher who was reportedly transferred by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) after she called for the revocation of tutors’ medical insurance under AoN Minet (“TSC transfers tutor a day after she called for change of medical insurance scheme” (Sunday Nation, Nov. 14).

Ms Omollo, the spokesperson of the Teachers Pressure Group (TPG) — which, according to her, fills a vacuum left by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) in fighting for the welfare of tutors — was transferred from Nairobi to Trans Nzoia County.

She described the transfer as “malicious and meant to intimidate and silence her and other teachers from speaking against the frustrations teachers are facing under the medical cover and other injustices being introduced by the TSC”, reads the story.

I know I’m not alone; there are thousands of us who have suffered the same brutal fate as Ms Omollo. I’ve been on interdiction for the past five years, since 2017.

A TSC teacher, I was a hunted renegade for the 20 years I was in active service, all for questioning why some things were not being done the correct way in schools.

Trouble

Issues that got me in trouble included questioning why the students’ food ration was small, yet school fees was always high; why principals and head teachers insist on holiday and weekend tuition even when the government has banned them; and why school heads want every student to score an “A” even when they don’t have the mental aptitude for the grade.

A teacher who does not “produce” ‘As’ using all means, including cheating, is hated by school heads and education officers — for blocking their channels for ‘eating’ from the school. In collusion with education officers, school heads use extra tuition and “good” results to blindfold parents as they ‘eat’ heavily.

Such a teacher — like Ms Omollo and I — is punished by way of a sudden transfer to a remote rural school only accessible through dusty and muddy roads by village boda bodas. The transfer letter always reads: “It has been decided that you be transferred [from this school to that] ...” with a warning that if you fail to report to your new station immediately your meagre salary will be stopped — and with interdiction!

So was my fate for 20 years: I was transferred to several ‘bush’ schools. Like Ms Omollo, they eventually caught up with me. Following a motorcycle accident that dislocated my right ankle and knee, I was denied medical leave and interdicted for “desertion of duty”! I have not recovered and I’m still on interdiction.

That is TSC: Very happy to deduct or stop a teacher’s salary — as with the forced medical insurance — but quite unwilling to increase it to the minimum decent level. Kenyan teachers are in virtual slavery. We need urgent help. Overhaul TSC to improve our lives.

Abuli Olieka, Nairobi