Don’t sign performance contracts, unions warn

Teachers’ unions’ officials across the country have continued to protest against performance contracts and appraisals, saying teachers cannot accept the contracts when there is still a dispute concerning the 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Mumias branch Secretary General, John Wesonga, has asked all teachers not to sign performance contracts until the unions direct them to do so.

Speaking in Kakamega County, Wesonga said the government should first improve working and learning conditions in schools before directing teachers to sign the contracts.

In Mombasa County, KNUT Kilindini branch chair, Dan Aloo, accused the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of making policies without involving stakeholders. Because of this, Aloo called for dismissal of TSC commissioners, saying that they have violated the constitution.

On Wednesday, head teachers from public schools in Murang’a North region signed performance contracts in a process led by officers from the TSC.

Their action flouted an order issued by KNUT on Wednesday where the union directed its members not to participate in the performance contracting for head teachers and appraisals for teachers by the TSC.

KNUT accused TSC of being in “total disregard of all laid down procedures and in blatant defiance of the laws provided for under Chapter 10 of the Constitution and Section 13 of the Teachers Service Commission Act”.

“What is being introduced fundamentally alters the negotiated and agreed terms and conditions of service under which the teachers were first employed,” read the KNUT statement.