8 March 2008
Nairobi — Striking volunteer teachers at the makeshift Showground Primary School in Eldoret on Friday agreed to resume teaching pending a solution to their pay demands.
The 63 teachers had been offering their services since the school was started in January to cater for displaced pupils camping at the showground.
The school has only 15 teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission while the rest are volunteers. The school has a pupil population of 3,122.
"We have held a meeting with the teachers and have agreed to resume duty. Delay in vetting the names of the volunteers has led to the standoff but they have agreed to be patient," the headmaster, Mr David Karanja, said.
Mr Karanja said teachers who are also camping at the showground badly needed the money to keep them going.
"Though their demands are genuine, my concern is the manner in which they went about it. Involving pupils in their protest was unprofessional and unethical," said Mr Karanja.
To ensure that learning was not interrupted again, the teachers were asked to fill in commitment forms to continue teaching while their plight is addressed.
Eldoret Municipal Education Officer John Mutia said the teachers will be paid their dues.
Meanwhile, Arnesens High School in Uasin Gishu, which reopened last week after it played host to thousands of internally displaced persons, posted an impressive performance in last year's Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.
The school had 113 candidates and posted a mean score of 7.625, up from 6.57. Sixty two candidates scored B - and above, with four scoring an aggregate of A-.
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