The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) is calling upon the government to provide teachers deployed in bandit-stricken areas with guns.
Speaking to the press on Thursday, KUPPET acting Secretary General Moses Nthurima urged the government to train teachers in volatile areas on security protocols, and arm them with guns, for their own safety.
This, Nthurima says, will help the teachers to gain courage in providing their vital services to learners and not live with fear.
“Teachers must be trained and provided with guns, because you cannot confront a gunman with a chalk. When you take a teacher to insecurity prone areas, that teacher will constantly leave in fear.
“But if the gun is hanging on his or her back, even the bandits will know that guy is a no-go-zone, and they would take the second thought before they make mistakes,” said Nthurima.
Phase out boarding schools
In a bid to tackle the rising cases of students indiscipline, KUPPET says that boarding schools should be reduced, with the intention of phasing them out completely, because the efforts of teachers in this institutions are not complimented by parents.
“We have realised that there is no complementarity between the efforts of the teachers and the parents. Once learners leave for boarding schools they come back after three months, and they are just foreigners to parents. Teachers are overworked.”
This, KUPPET says, will solve the indiscipline and insecurity in the institutions.
Additionally, KUPPET says government should employ guidance and counseling teachers who are substantive, and will do nothing else except to follow-up on indiscipline cases among students.
