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A crisis is looming in schools across the country after the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) issued a strike notice over failure by the government to implement the second phase of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement that was to take effect in July.

In a statement, the union expressed concerns over blatant failure by the government to fulfill the commitment it had made on improving teachers’ general welfare.

They took issue with the government over consistent cuts to the education budget at a time when wastage in government continues to rise.

“KUPPET will convene its National Governing Council to call for industrial action starting in September. This follows the government’s failure to implement the second phase of the 2021-25 Collective Bargaining Agreement that was to take effect in July. Teachers have received their July payment without their deserved increment which were already negotiated, signed and deposited in the Industrial and Labour Relations Court,” the statement read in sections.

No parallels

According to the unionists, the current government is implementing the most ambitious rollback of social spending since independence, adding that the scale of cuts to the Education budget by the current government has no parallels in history.

“In fact, even the infamous Structural Adjustment Programme (SAPs) that was forced on Kenya by the World Bank and the IMF in the mid-1980s did not result in the magnitude of cost deductions being made today,” the statement further read.

They decried that the government’s move to increase fees for university and college students last year to alleviate the financial burden on universities has only made the matters worse as universities’ liabilities have risen sharply from Sh61 billion to Sh75 billion, while student loans have been delayed for months.

They further lamented the government’s action to discontinue the Edu-Afya Medical insurance through which it paid Sh1,350 in premiums for every student in public secondary schools.

“The programme was underwritten by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and catered for approximately 3.5 million students. Its abolition has affected millions of students,” the unionists said.

Downward review

Additionally, the teachers expressed their displeasure over the downward review of capitation of learners to offset the high inflation that has bedeviled the country in the last seven years. Reports indicated that the government has cut Free Day Secondary School (FDSE) capitation funds by 24 per cent from Sh22,244 per learner per year to Sh17,000 despite spirited calls by principals and other education stakeholders for an increase.

Even more damagingly, the unionists regretted that the government is now going back on its commitment to employ 20,000 new teachers and convert 46,000 intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms, at a budget of only Sh18 billion.

“The same government has budgeted Sh54 billion for entertainment and travel by state officers. This kind of wastage is unacceptable to Kenyans and indeed all right-thinking Kenyans. The Sh18 billion cut would irreparably affect teaching in Junior Secondary Schools which depend on intern teachers and where the teacher deficit currently stands at more than 87,000,” the unionists quipped in the statement.