By Agwanda Jakorando

NYANZA Provincial Kenya National Union of Teachers Council has supported the Union’s top brass call for a national wide teachers’ strike schedule for this January 19 after the recently failed talks between the Union and the Government over teachers’ salary increment.

The Council’s Secretary Mr. Tom Olilo said they fully support the KNUT National Officials for rejecting what he termed as meager pay hike offer from the government through Education Minister Professor Sam Ongeri.

Olilo said the past governments and even now the Coalition government has failed to recognize the plight of teachers, adding that even teachers too are feeling the current heat of inflation and high standards of living just like any other Kenyan.

Speaking to the Press in Kisumu, Olilo who is also the Executive Secretary of the Kisumu East KNUT Branch added that teachers are also parents and they too feel bad when learning is interrupted but downing their pens and pieces chalks is the only option since they have been pushed to the wall by the government.

Olilo urged KNUT National Officials led by its Secretary General Lawrence Majali to be firm and not cede any ground anymore in the talks for better conditions for the thousands of teachers in primary, secondary and even tertiary levels countrywide.

Olilo who was accompanied by KNUT Kisumu East Branch Chairman Marcellus Okweya, said teachers in Nyanza and the rest in Kenya will not be cowed by the threats from the Education Minister that the government will get an alternative of making sure learning progresses despite the impending strike.

“The Education Minister and any other concerned party should know that he cannot solve the teachers’ salary stalemate by issuing us with threats,” said Olilo, adding that the region’s 40,000 plus teachers intends to participate in the impending national wide strike.