Education stakeholders in Narok County have asked the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to include the entire county as a hardship area for teachers owing to the vastness and remoteness of the area.
The stakeholders led by Governor Patrick Ntutu told the TSC Commissioner Leila Abdi that the teachers in the county were demotivated as they underwent a lot of challenges in their teaching profession with a poor pay.
They were speaking on Friday at Africa Hope Hall in Narok town in a meeting that brought together all Members of Parliament in the six constituencies namely Agnes Pareyio (Narok North), Julius Sunkuli (Kilgoris), Johanah Ngeno (Emurrua Dikirr), Kitilai Ole Ntutu (Narok South), Ken Aramat (Narok East) and Gabriel Tongoyo (Narok West).
Also present was Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina, County Women Representative Rebecca Tonkei, County Commissioner Isaac Masinde, school principals and board members of all the schools in the county.
Governor Ntutu wondered why some schools in the county were considered to be in hardship areas while other schools that were only separated by a road were not registered as hardship areas yet the teachers in both schools undergo the same challenges.
He also called on the Commission to review the policy on employing teachers saying some teachers waited for too long to be employed until they give up the teaching career and seek for other opportunities.
“The regulation put by TSC to employ teachers on merit may look good but at the same time demotivates teachers. Most teachers opt to move to other counties to seek opportunities or quit the teaching profession after staying for over five years without being employed,” said the governor.
The governor noted that the county has a shortage of 1, 299 teachers in primary school and 1, 247 teachers in secondary school saying the current administration would address this challenge.
“The Kenya Kwanza Alliance administration, which I belong to, is committed to address the issue of teachers’ shortage. It is just a matter of time and the issue will be sorted,” reiterated Ntutu.
Senator Ole Kina also pushed for hardship allowances for teachers in the entire county saying most of the areas were impassable due to poor roads and they experienced harsh weather conditions.
He observed that cases of human-wildlife conflict were high in the county which is the home of the iconic Maasai Mara Game reserve where over 50 percent of animals are found outside the protected area.
“Our teachers struggle a lot to deliver services as expected yet they earn peanuts. We want our teachers to be treated fairly by being given hardship allowances,” he said.
Narok County Women Representative Rebecca Tonkei said during her campaigns, she promised teachers that she would champion for hardship allowances as they faced numerous challenges while teaching in the area.
Ms. Tonkei, who is a teacher by profession, also asked TSC to promote teachers in the county so that they could teach in national schools like Alliance Boys and the like.
Ms. Abdi assured the leaders that the Commission had noted their issues and would put them into consideration.
She said the commissioners are mandated to formulate policies for the Commission and the policies are the instruments used by the Commission to run the day to day activities hence they affect them in different ways.
“Before the Commission would sit in the office and formulate these policies, but we said to ourselves if we have to make a difference, we have to go down to our stakeholders and hear from them so that when we go back to our offices, we can make policies that are applicable,” said Ms. Abdi.
