The New Academic Year May Be Suspended As TSC Warns Over Fees

By Getrude Mathayo / Published July 27, 2021 | 11:29 am

KEY POINTS

At least 158,679 teachers have received the first vaccination jab. Education Chief Executive Nancy Macharia raised concerns over 44 percent of teachers who had yet to be inoculated with at least one dose.

According to Teacher Service Commission, TSC, in the new report, the new academic year may be suspended due to the dire challenges faced by teachers.

The report titled Teachers Preparedness for Term One 2021 school reopening; teachers may not be well prepared to tackle the numerous challenges as school resume learning.

Covid-19 pandemic was one of the greatest challenges cited by teachers due to the disruption of the fourth wave.

This was assigned to the fear of the unknown which has caused panic among teachers especially after the nine-month break of the school calendar 2022.

Since the cases of Covid-19 reported in the county, seventy-three teachers have died while another 454 teachers have recovered according to TSC.

“I urge the 44.4 percent of teachers who did not receive any vaccination at all to move quickly and get the jab to protect their lives,” Macharia said.

Syllabus coverage was also listed as the tutors’ second greatest threat to continuous physical learning. The school calendar released by the Ministry of Education was too congested to allow them to adequately offer quality learning

The third challenge raised by teachers in the report involved the congestion of schools as they try to contend with the guidelines stipulated by the Health Ministry. Schools’ limited infrastructure came into play as teachers must ensure that the students work within their guidelines.

In addition, TSC warned school heads against charging parents extra school fees warning that action will be taken on those found culpable.

This comes amid complaints that some secondary schools are defying Ministry of Education guidelines on fees and imposing illegal levies spread across the school term.

“TSC is investigating few allegations that some teachers are not complying with the Government directive on school fees,” Nancy Macharia said.

School fees were slashed by the Ministry of Education for national schools by 8,500 shillings and that for extra county and county schools by 5500 shillings to ease the financial pressure on parents.

According to the new directives, learners in national schools will pay 45,000 shillings per year while those in extra county and county schools will pay 39,554 shillings effective march 2nd 2022.