The Garissa County government will tomorrow move to court to challenge the Teachers Service Commission’s decision to transfer more than 1000 teachers out of the county.
Area governor, Ali Korane who was addressing a stakeholders meeting on Saturday he organised at a Garissa Hotel termed the move by TSC as unprocedural, negligence of duty and an infringement of the constitutional rights of thousands of pupils and students in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties.
Korane said together with other Governors they will move to court and at the same time launch a complaint and request the Intergovernmental Relations Committee to withdraw the powers of TSC to transfer and appoint teachers in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera counties.
The Governor also pledged the recruitment of Untrained Teachers (UTs) on contract basis to address the ongoing education crisis.
He urged the locals to massively volunteer to teach and enroll in teacher training colleges assuring them that the County Government will sponsor them through the provision of full bursaries.
“The TSC leadership has an ill motive to put us into a crisis, when we all know that hundreds of non-locals were still teaching in the private schools in Garissa and there are a sizeable number of non-locals in other government departments peacefully serving contrary to the impression portrayed by TSC,” Korane said.
The Garissa Deputy governor, Abdi Dagane and the Education CEC, Habiba Nasib said they will lead an onslaught of the crisis to ensure many county staff volunteered in the affected schools as a palliative measure.
” I am a teacher by profession and am reporting to Garissa High School come this Monday, ” Dagane said.
Dagane said TSC moved to court to contest admission of trainee P1 teachers with D+ and C- on grounds that such low grades will compromise the standards of education “yet it’s massively moving out teachers without regards to the impact on standards of education in this region”
He termed the mass transfers ‘as double standards and hypocrisy’.
The Garissa County Commissioner (CC), Mwangi Meru said TSC were either blind or indifferent to the consequences of their move to transfer teachers serving in safer regions of Garissa town, Balambala, Madogashe, Bura, Dadaab and Masalani towns.
“We have non-locals serving in other government departments and non-state actors; as the chairman of security committee in this county and education board member am shocked by TSC’s move to declare this region as no-go-zone,” said the CC.
By Jacob Songok
