Teachers’ unions in fresh fight over junior secondary teachers
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia with Kuppet secretary-general Akello Misori (centre) and Knut’s Collins Oyuu in Nairobi in March 2022.
The rivalry between Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (Kuppet) and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) is set to intensify as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) transfers tutors from primary to secondary schools ahead of Grade Seven rollout next year.
Kuppet, which represents teachers in post-primary institutions, said it will recruit the transferred teachers.
The tutors are members of Knut, but since they will be teaching in secondary schools, the law says they should join Kuppet.
Kuppet secretary-general Akelo Misori yesterday said Knut signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with TSC that they will only represent teachers in primary schools. They, therefore, cannot claim to represent the teachers.
“They are the ones who signed that they represent only teachers in primary schools and once they transition to secondary, they should join Kuppet,” he said.
Mr Misori said the union has an open door policy with all teachers in post-primary institutions.
“If they choose to be members of Knut, that will be a conflict of the Knut-TSC MoA signed last year,” he said.
1,000 teachers
So far, the TSC has transferred over 1,000 teachers who are degree holders from primary to secondary schools ahead of the junior secondary roll out.
More teachers are set to be redeployed to alleviate shortage in the secondary schools.
But Knut secretary-general Collins Oyuu said yesterday that even though they signed the demarcation memorandum with the TSC last year when they came into office, the law is superior to the agreement.
He said Knut will represent all teachers regardless of whether they are in primary or secondary schools.
“A memorandum cannot be superior to the law. Visit the Labour ministry and they will tell you how membership in a trade union is acquired,” said Mr Oyuu.
He said the recognition agreement they signed with TSC has a clause that says they can call for review.
Currently, Kuppet has a membership of over 100,000 teachers against Knut’s over 115,000. Knut is yet to fully hit the187,000 membership it had before the June 2019 conflict with TSC started.
Mr Misori noted if teachers are deployed to secondary schools, Knut should not follow them.
He said Knut can only represent teachers in secondary schools if they amend their signed memorandum with the employer.
Mr Misori noted that Knut must understand that when Kuppet came on board and together with other unions, their jurisdiction is now limited.
With junior secondary facing serious challenges among them lack of enough infrastructure, Knut has been calling for Grade Seven, Eight and Grade Nine to be domiciled in primary schools citing enough classrooms.
Mr Oyuu yesterday cited the tender age of the Grade Seven learners as a factor that should be considered.
Infrastructure wastage
He said Knut had conducted surveys and teachers and some education officials agree that junior secondary should be domiciled in primary schools.
“Apart from the fact that we will have infrastructure wastage, look at the age of these children, at 10 one is in secondary school. We want to make sure that parents are not over-stressed because they have to pay more for what is in secondary schools,” he said.
He said the call for Knut to have junior secondary domiciled in primary schools has nothing to do with the union’s membership.
However, Mr Misori said the age of the students is not a factor, as they will be studying a secondary school curriculum. He noted that in UK, students get to university at 17 years.
“Whether the location of where learning will be in primary schools, does not change the content as they will be taught by secondary school teachers,” he said.
