Whenever teachers employed by the government feel aggrieved, they have always resorted to strikes and in most cases they go back to class after a deal. There is, however, another category of teachers whose plight is never addressed — those who work in private schools. With a few exceptions, most of them work under very difficult circumstances. It’s a fact that many private schools have very good facilities to attract parents. It’s also true that most of them post very impressive KCPE and KCSE exam results. But the engine propelling those results is the teacher, who is hardly ever appreciated. One would expect that he or she will be well remunerated, but far from it. Most of these schools do not have a scheme of service for teachers and, therefore, do not have a salary scale. Teachers’ salaries are determined by the employer. In some schools, teachers work for long hours without compensation. For instance, some start classes at 6.45am and end at 10.30pm. It gets worse if you are assigned boarding or weekly duties because you have to wake up at 4.30am to wake up the students, and sleep long after they have gone to bed. There is no overtime or special allowance for those extra duties. In addition to poor remuneration and job insecurity, there is neither a medical nor retirement benefits scheme. Some employers do not even remit the statutory deductions to the NSSF and NHIF. Teachers of a leading boys’ private school in Karen, Nairobi, lament that although theirs is a high-cost school, they have nothing to show for it in terms of their well-being. They claim the school, which is owned by foreign investors, discriminates against local teachers. Their foreign colleagues ostensibly come to work as volunteers in Kenya though they have little or no knowledge about our education system. These “expatriates” earn up to five times what a Kenyan teacher earns. In addition they are given car loans, free housing in upmarket areas of Nairobi and a return air ticket to their motherland for summer holidays every year. The local teachers cannot even afford to take their children to the same school or any other schools run by the same investor. In addition, all administrative positions are held by foreigners regardless of their educational levels. There are a few schools that treat teachers with dignity, but most of them do not. The main problem is that most schools are owned and managed by people who are just out to make money. They have very little regard for professionalism. The situation is made worse by the ever- increasing number of graduates joining the job market every year. These are ready to offer their services for very little pay to gain experience. Therefore, employers can hire and fire teachers at will because there is ready cheap labour. As the government addresses the plight of the striking teachers, it should spare a thought for those in private schools. What became of the government policy that no foreigner should be employed to do a job that can be done by a Kenyan?
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 00:21:00 +0000
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