The government should provide security training and guns for teachers deployed in volatile regions of the country, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has demanded.
According to acting KUPPET Secretary General Moses Nthurima, armed teachers would be better poised to deal with attackers.
“We are repeating this demand that in the pockets of insecurity, teachers must be trained and provided with guns. You cannot confront a gunman with chalk. When we take a teacher to insecurity prone areas that teacher will constantly live in fear. But if the gun is hanging on his back even bandits will know that teacher is a no-go zone and they will take a second thought before making any mistake,” said Nthurima.
This comes in the wake of incidents where armed gunmen have killed teachers in the North-Eastern and Coast regions.
At the same time, KUPPET wants the State to reduce the number of boarding schools with a view to abolishing them entirely.
“We have realised there is no complementarity between efforts of the teachers and parents because once learners leave for boarding school they return home after three months and are foreigners to their parents. We want the efforts consolidated by having learners go home in the evening so that when they go to school they have an input from the parent and then they find the teacher,” said Nthurima.
On the issue of students’ unrest in schools, KUPPET wants the government to expedite the recruitment of guidance and counseling teachers who will only be tasked with addressing learners’ issues in schools.
The KUPPET boss further demanded that teachers be provided with risk allowance.
“We demand that teachers are paid risk allowances. Teachers are constantly facing threats from learners and even parents and also pockets of insecurity. It has become extremely urgent that teachers are paid allowances. It cannot wait any more,” said Nthurima.
