KUPPET Wants CBC Pressure on Teachers Addressed
Teachers through the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), have petitioned the government to change their teaching calendar.
According to a statement released by the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) on Monday, April 10, the teachers also needed extracurricular activities and other mental awareness courses or exercises.
Teachers expressed a desire to incorporate play into what they perceived to be an overloaded teaching schedule, just like students enrolled in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
KUPPET stated that they had observed that the school calendar was compressed and term dates were squeezed when they resumed after the pandemic. According to KUPPET’s statement, this situation had taken a toll on the teachers, with increased pressure.
The teachers who had gathered at Kapsabet Showground for a fun day during the Easter Holidays feared they could not withstand the pressure.
“We are wary that some of our teachers might go into depression if we do not get a way to unwind,” they pleaded with the government.
Due to workload, KUPPET discovered that some of their teachers were silently battling mental illness and anxiety.
The Union remarked that extracurricular activities would be a welcome respite as students would have time to relax.
“Sporting activities will be avenues of interaction which will, in turn, bring a positive result in our profession and lives at large,” they noted.
On February 20, 2023, the government, through TSC, hired 30,000 teachers for public Junior Secondary Schools.
TSC stated it would place at least one teacher in each public primary school. Teachers claimed that delays forced them to teach as many as 14 subjects in schools.
Johnson Nzioka, the National Chairperson of the Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association (KEPSHA), and Dr. Frank Njenga, the Presidential Advisor on Mental Health, urged the TSC to address teachers’ mental health issues in December 2022.
Nzioka and Njenga argued that reports of suicide among teaching staff had significantly increased.
In response, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia advised teachers to use Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) to adapt to CBC requirements and assured them that she would address mental awareness.
Several unions, however, took it upon themselves to educate teachers on mental health awareness.
KUPPET Wants CBC Pressure on Teachers Addressed
