Strike!

Well my internship has taken an interesting turn. I have been in schools for the past month... and now the teachers are on strike. Every public school in Kenya is closed (and the Private school I was at is on midterm break.)

There are 2 unions in Kenya-- KNUT (Kenya Union of Teachers) and KUPPET (Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers). Kuppet called a strike last week for secondary schools. Many teachers listen to them, but if KNUT calls a strike, everyone listens. If a school tries to continue holding session after KNUT calls a strike, they will have people protesting outside the school. Yesterday began KNUT's strike for all Primary schools. 12 million children are now not going to school.

Many of the students who aren't going to school now don't live in places that they really want to spend all day. That puts them out on the street, which is exactly what the government has been doing a good job at stopping. 10 years ago they enacted free primary education, and it's gotten a lot of kids off the street. But right now they don't really have anywhere to go. Walking to and from the mall yesterday, there were a lot more kids out begging than there usually are. 

Loosely the way school works here: pretty much upper class kids go to British or American schools, Upper/Middle class goes to Private schools, and everyone who can't afford that goes to public school. So it's only really the lower class kids who are out of school now-- the underprivileged kids who don't have an equal chance to begin with.  

So why are the teachers protesting? It's only slightly complicated. They want money. They've been trying to get increased stipends for housing, commuting, and medical expenses. They now know that the money exists because the Government has started a laptop program for students and has set aside a good amount of money for that program. The program, though, is a little reckless. It is rather haphazardly giving laptops to every form 1 student and teachers are afraid of what will happen with those laptops. It is likely they will end up stolen, mistreated, lost, or sold. Instead of giving the students laptops without a plan, the teachers want more money for themselves, or for the government to hire more teachers. They think that with the increase of teachers, or with teachers paid more, the students could actually use the laptops and be trained how to take care of them.

These strikes have lasted for long periods of time before, even to the point of interfering with national tests. There's a chance this one will go on even longer. KNUT has had 6 strikes and subsequent talks with the government since 1997. Each time they've been promised more money, and each time the government hasn't followed through. The teachers have promised not to go back to school until this is actually resolved. But, of course, the government is saying that KNUT has "unsustainable demands" and that there is a "huge budget deficit".

We'll see how long this lasts this time. I'll go back to Logos Christian School, the Private school, on Monday and be there until this strike ends or I go home. I'd really like to see more of Kawangware Public, so hopefully it won't last too long. Watching the news about all this is really interesting though. 

I also spent this last weekend in Mombasa and just posted about it if you're curious :)