By Reporter
Teachers in Lamu County are putting pressure on the national government to immediately confirm approximately 20,000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms, citing crippling staff shortages and overwhelming workloads.
Speaking in Lamu today following a Lamu KUPPET branch members meeting held in Mpeketoni Sofia Njagi, a Hindi Town based JSS teacher called on the government to speed up the process of confirming the JSSS intern teachers whom she said have been overloaded work-plans with some going as far as having 37 lessons weekly due to lack of enough teachers.
“Apart from fully confirming the JSS intern teachers the government also needs to address the lack of proper infrastructure that is plaguing most schools especially here in Lamu, where two or three grades of learners are being forced in some instances to share classrooms,” she said.
She further noted that there has been poor responses on several issues raised by KUPPET members towards the branch’s current secretariat, stating that there is a lack of communication over any national government directives to address the plight of learning especially within far flung areas such as the Boni where teachers are handicapped to work under extraneous circumstances.
“In some schools especially within the Boni and Lamu East, teachers work under very tough conditions, where in some schools three teachers have been left to teach all the grades,” Timothy Wanyonyi a Mokowe based teacher noted.
He further said the current Lamu KUPPET branch administration has failed in its mandate to address such concerns or even bring them up to the Teachers Service Commission to address such issues that affect learning in the county.
Sentiments echoed by KUPPET Executive Director aspirant Ayub Were who stated that there is urgent need to address the plight of teachers and the infrastructure within which they work if Lamu is meant to improve learning standards in the foreseeable future.
“The current KUPPET branch administration has failed in its mandate to handle the plight of Lamu teachers and JSS interns, many of whom are working under tough conditions such as insufficient capitation for schools, lack of a regular school feeding initiative that would otherwise keep children in schools,” Were said.
He further challenged the secretariat to divulge the details of a meeting they held with the President at State House two weeks ago, stating that teachers are “in the dark” over what issues are being prioritized for resolution, particularly for remote areas where learning is most affected.
Ayub Were, a Lamu Girls teacher and KUPPET Lamu Branch Executive Director Aspirant addressing the media over the plight affecting teachers in Lamu, amid calls to fully confirm the 20,000 JSS intern teachers nationally.
