Education in all the public primary and day secondary schools in Meru County might completely grind to a halt if the government fails to release the free primary and secondary day education funds in a fortnight time.
Caxton Muingi and Julius Mbijiwe who are the Meru County Kenya National Union of Teachers(KNUT) and Kenya Post Primary Union of Teachers(KUPPET) executive secretaries respectively both regretted that since schools re-opened for the second term 3 weeks ago, the government is yet to release the funds.
"In the next 2 weeks, pupils and students will be chased from school because of lack of funds to run the institutions. The move will inevitably compromise the education standards in the area," said Mbijiwe.
He said over 6 million children will be affected countrywide and urged the government to urgently intervene by releasing the money in time in order to avoid unnecessary education crisis in the country.
Speaking at Kariene primary School in Imenti Central District,the two supported President Kibaki appointment of the County commissioners noting it was within the constitution because it falls under his docket.
They called on those opposed to the appointments to desist from politicising the issue for their own selfish gains and wondered why nobody complained when other appointments including those of the County Education Directors were done.
"It is just politics with those opposed to the move fearing the new employees will not dance to their tune and those of their people.No vetting or noise was done when others were appointed but some leaders have made it their culture to question every decision the president makes in order to gain cheap popularity," said Miungi.
He said the government should ensure it factors the employment of the pre-primary school teachers in it next budget before deciding to allocate money to overhaul the education system in the country.
"The government should also factor in the hardship,commuter,city and municipal allowances in the next budget owing to the escalating cost of living failure to which teachers will go on strike by this July.We are demanding an increment of 300% because teachers have had no increment since 1997,"said Miungi.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.