Why Hello
Everyone J
It’s a beautiful Friday and there are
some things to blog about. I just want to put it out there right in the
beginning that Peace Corps remains apolitical and I just want to inform you all
on what’s going on here in Kenya but I’m not taking a side.
Tuesday started
the teacher’s strike here in Kenya and as of this afternoon it’s still going
on. There is a long history behind it and I’ve tried to gather as many details
as I could. This is what I’ve learned from a few teachers at my school and the
Daily Nation Newspaper.
Ok, so the
majority of teachers in Kenya are under the TSC (Teachers Service Commission)
and those are the teachers on strike. Way back in 1997 the Kenya National Union
of Teachers (KNUT) talked to the government and basically had an agreement that
the government would pay them higher allowances and a higher basic pay. The
negotiation after the talk in ’97 was that teachers pay would be raised by 105%
and 200%. They said 5 allowances would also be offered: medical,
responsibility, special, hardship and commuter. The deal was to be implemented
over a period of 5 years with effect from 1997 but only the basic pay was
raised. So the government didn’t follow through completely and the allowances
are now the basis for the strike going on. They are asking for a 50% increase
on their allowances. There are 278,000 teachers on payroll that are now on
strike and these teachers are demanding 47 billion shillings. The amount of
learners hurt by this strike? “9 million pupils to be affected in more than
20,000 public primary schools and 1.8 million students to be affected in more
than 7,000 public secondary schools”! That’s astounding! Speaking of
astounding, in one article it said this was the 7th strike to go on
since ’97 all about this same agreement. I just hope it doesn’t go on very long
and that the government actually follows through this time. Last year there was
a strike in September, which lasted 3 weeks!
The other aspect
of this strike goes to what President Kenyatta promised in his campaign. He
told Kenyans that every child going into Class 1 in a public school would get a
laptop. Now as you can imagine that would cost a fair amount of money. The
teachers think that he shouldn’t spend the money on the laptops for the
children because they are the ones teaching them and they need more money to
get by/they were already promised the money a long time ago. The government is
now stuck between keeping the promise of the laptops everyone is so excited
about and stopping the strike and finally paying the teachers what they were
promised 16 years ago. We shall see what happens.
How this has
affected my life in Sipili? All of the teachers at my school are under the TSC.
So they’re all at home or at least they’re not in school. However, our students
are all still here. My headmaster was here on Wednesday and Thursday and
thankfully my deputy has come in every day and will continue doing so. They
know that if we tell the parents to come pick up their children, 2 things will
happen to most of them. 1. They won’t get picked up and 2. Once they go home,
they’ll stay home until Term 3 begins. So the kids stay. Since I am not on
strike and I live on the compound so I’m here already, I have taught a few
classes to keep their minds busy. The three of us (my headmaster, the deputy
and me) decided to split up the school into 3 sections (little ones, classes 4
& 5 and classes 6 & 7) so that we could teach lessons here and there to
them. I was assigned Classes 4 & 5 and we’ve been doing lots of spelling
and sign practice J The high
school next door to us is still in session because although the TSC members are
at home, the BOG (Board of Governors) teachers are still there and have split
up the work. The primary school on the other side of us is also still in
session because they have assigned their PTA members to teach. I know a lot of
schools have shut down because they’re not boarding/special schools and they
are dominated by TSC members. It’s different for every school on the action
they’re taking but since we’re a special school, at least one teacher needs to
be around and they can’t stop us from teaching occasionally.
I will keep you
all updated on how things turn out but hopefully this upcoming week, they’ll
have sorted everything out and schools will be up and running again across
Kenya!
On a different
note, I found an interesting article in the paper the other day that I wanted
to share. Kenya is listed among 8 sub-Saharan African countries with the least
number of new HIV infections among children! The new infections have been
reduced by more than 50%! The other countries include: Ethiopia, Botswana,
Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. They said (the new report from
Geneva, Switzerland) that it was due to the fact that more pregnant women
living with HIV were receiving ARV medication to prevent transmission to their
children. The report said that Kenya doubled the numbers of children accessing
treatment between 2009 & 2012. Botswana and South Africa reduced their
HIV-transmission rates to 5% and below! Lastly, they said that there are
130,000 fewer new HIV infections in 21 African countries, a drop of 38% since
2009. I thought that was a pretty cool article J
I hope you are
all having a fabulous June and have fun plans for the 4th of July! I
am hoping to travel up to Maralal to visit with 3 PCVs working there and 1 more
that is traveling in like me. It should only be a 4-5 hour trip so I can get a
solid nap in on the matutu ride next weekend. And I’m throwing it out there
that my sister is now officially in KENYA!!!! I won’t see her for 2ish weeks
since she’s working on the coast first but I’m super duper excited to see
her!!!!
Kisses from
Kenya,
Lizbeth
No comments:
Post a Comment