Students taught by primary school teachers walk 21km in protest

Students at Sigor Day Secondary School in Bomet County were in a rare protest walk on Tuesday, trudging more than 21 kilometres to protest the government’s failure to post teachers to the institution.

More than 150 students boycotted classes on Tuesday and walked to the county headquarters to present their grievances to education officers. 

It took the protesting students more than four hours to get to the county headquarters on foot and in the process, the boys and girls risked their lives.

"The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has failed to post teachers to our school despite repeated appeals by our parents, guardians and members of the board of management,” the protesting students said.

“It is pointless for us to be in school and assume all is well when the commission has failed to deploy teachers employed by the government to take charge of the institution,” said a student who spoke on behalf of the others.

The school that has students from Form One to Four was officially registered one and a half years ago by the Ministry of Education.

However, the school is managed by the local primary school, with teachers from the lower institution volunteering to teach the students in their free time.

Eight teachers employed by the board of management have been manning the school for the last six years, which in effect translates to two teachers for each class.

County education officers were shocked to find the students camping outside their office when they reported to work before 8am on Tuesday.

Mr Charles Nyauma, the TSC county director addressed the students and said the matter would be dealt with immediately by the commission.

“We have heard your complaints and will act on the grievances you have raised. You must now go back to school and resume your studies,” said Mr Nyauma before a bus belonging to a local school was provided to take the students back to their institution.

Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) officials condemned the casual attitude with which the TSC officials had handled the matter in the last one year.

Mr Paul Kimetto, the Kuppet county branch executive secretary and his Knut counterpart Malel Langat said despite the institution having 45 registered Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KSCE) candidates, the institution was manned by teachers employed by the board of management.

“The incident is a clear demonstration of lack of leadership and dereliction of duty by the TSC managers at the county in what the commission top guns should address as a matter of urgency. It is a vote of no confidence by students on the TSC county office,” said the two unionists in a joint statement.

The commission has repeatedly been in the spotlight for skewed deployment of teachers, nepotism and favouritism in promotions in Bomet County in the last three years, with stakeholders unsuccessfully demanding a change of guard in the local office.

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