County Knut Executive Secretary, Elly Korinko, has threatened to pull out teachers from a World Bank funded education project over “abuse” claims.
County Knut Executive Secretary Elly Korinko – right- with his boss Wilson Sosion in Kajiado recently (above).
Several primary schools in the county are benefiting from the project which seeks to see that learners improve early grade mathematics competency and strengthen management systems at national schools level.
Korinko, who called KNU newsroom on Wednesday evening, said he is not against the programme under the under the auspices of Primary Education Development Project (PRIEDE), but the manner teachers are handled by the ministry.
“Teachers deserve the right to privacy and freedom of association, and this is a warning to the County directors of Education and Teachers Service Commission to plan their programmes to fall within the week and not weekends,” said a fire breathing Knut official.
Korinko argued that teachers work for more than 10 hours each day from Monday to Friday, and now that the Ministry of Education has insisted that the same teachers undergo PRIEDE lessons over the weekends.
“If they are not going to listen to us, we shall pull our teachers from that programme enmasse. Let them organise and fix them to fall within Monday to Friday,” said Korinko.
The Knut official said teachers have the right to attend to their families like other public servants after toiling for five days in a week.
“They also have religions which require them to attend to Church services like other Kenyans. This is not the best way to treat teachers like slaves. I am going to hand over demand letters to county directors of education and TSC tomorrow on Thursday,” said Korinko.
He said the letters will explicitly demand that teachers be removed from the programme once and for good if the Ministry of Education cannot re-plan how the programme can be worked on during the week days.
The project under the supervision of World Bank and undertaken by Ministry of Education is expected to assist the country in addressing the key challenges affecting early grade primary school education.
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in 2015 approved a grant of USD 88.4 million to the Ministry of Education Science and Technology for the Kenya Primary Education Development project.
The project covers the following four components:
Component 1: Improving early grade mathematics competencies
Component II: Strengthening Primary school management systems
Component III: Evidence based policy development
Component IV: Project management.
The project was expected to run from year 2015 – 2018. The World Bank is the Supervising Entity.
Project Beneficiaries
The project beneficiaries include:
- 6 million pupils in grade 1 and 2 will benefit from improved early grade mathematics Textbooks
- 40,000 teachers will benefit from new methodologies of early grade mathematics instruction through improved in-service training and regular pedagogical supervision and support
- 3 million pupils in participating schools will benefit from more effective and present teachers as well as improved teaching-learning inputs
- Head teachers and BoMs will receive guidance and support in school improvement planning and be empowered to implement plans to improve their school performance
- Parents and Communities whose aspirations will be met through greater information and enhanced voice in school management for improving quality of education
- Education system administrators will benefit from improved information and accountability through up to date Education Management Information System (EMIS) data and school audit
The Ministry of Education wants to align two major programmes – Tusome and Global Partnership in Education – which aim at strengthening the teaching of literacy and numeracy skills to class one and two children in public primary schools respectively, this is according to the Principal Secretary for Education Dr. Belio Kipsang.
Kipsang says the alignment would enable the Ministry implement the two projects more efficiently and effectively to avoid duplication of work.
He spoke when he met the President of RTI International, DR. Wayne Holden in Nairobi.
Dr. Holden said the programme will enable the learners to develop the skills necessary for quality education in their subsequent educational experience.
He said the Tusome Programme was the biggest educational programme RTI was participating in and looked forward to its success.
RTI International is the Implementing Partner of Lets Read, code-named Tusome, which is being implemented by Kenya’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and is funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the British Department for International Development at cost USD53.8million.
