Deputy Secretary General of KNUT Hesbon Agolla has clarified that there is no conflict between KNUT and KUPPET. He emphasized that both unions maintain a working relationship with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) concerning issues related to Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers.
"We do not have a disagreement with KUPPET because we are not in any competition. We are in labour relations with the TSC. The issue of 46,000 junior school teachers who have not been confirmed on permanent and pensionable is an issue we have brought up with TSC," Agolla said.
The Deputy Secretary General of KNUT further mentioned that the union and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had a constructive discussion regarding the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This conversation was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the teacher strike set to commence on Monday, August 26.
"We feel that majorly we have had a good discussion with TSC on these matters and the major aspect of why we were going on industrial action is based on the CBA that we signed for 2021-2025," Agolla said.
But according to Moses Nturima, Dep Sec Gen KUPPET, in order to make the government listen to teachers' concerns, they must be driven to the breaking point.
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"This country is losing 2 billion every day to corruption and this corruption is being perpetuated by the same government. If we don't press these people to look for money, they will never look for that money because they are not interested in education for the poor," Nturima said.
The Deputy Secretary General of KUPPET mentioned that the role of the teacher unions is to create pressure that forces the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to address teachers' concerns seriously. This suggests that KNUT was not as focused on pressuring the government and TSC.
"Our coming together with KNUT was supposed to create a bull work for forcing TSC to listen to the teachers. We are dealing with a very cruel employer who has no respect for teachers," Nturima said.
"Employment of interns is a threat to the teaching profession because going forward the government can decide to be employing the cheap labour and then the profession will just die a natural death," KUPPET deputy SG said.
The academic calendar indicated that students were scheduled to return to school on Monday, August 26. However, sources reported a low turnout of learners as schools reopened for the third term. This low attendance was attributed to confusion surrounding the conflicting stances of the teacher unions. While KNUT called off the strike on Sunday, KUPPET remained firm in its decision to continue the strike.
