Outgoing Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha challenged teachers and their leaders to change tact if they want President William Ruto to review their salaries upward.
Speaking at the Post World Teachers Celebrations held in Kirinyaga County on Monday, October 10, the CS argued that demonstrations and solidarity chants would not get them the increment they desperately need.
He implored them to look inward and find better way to push for better pay and have the state honour their collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
He explained that solidarity chants only sold them cheap arguing that no Government would take them seriously.
"The work they (teachers) are already doing, there's no way any government will be able to pay them. So, when you say solidarity and haki yetu (our rights), you're selling yourself cheap. That is not to say that you should not to negotiate for better terms which is your right.
"I would like to tell you that anybody who teaches is a tutor starting with my late mother who taught me a lot of things when I was sitting next to the traditional jiko," he explained.
Addressing the CBC, he explained that it was set to empower the children by the help of the tutorship of their teachers as well as their parents.
He praised his mother for instilling knowledge in him despite her not having attended formal education.
"These are things that no teacher has ever taught me to date and that is the strength of the CBC, when we say that there should be parental engagement. There's no parent who is illiterate.
"Don't I look extremely good and intelligent and my mother never went to school so excuse me for talking rubbish," he added.
In January 2022, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) wrote to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in a bid to renegotiate the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) deal.
The Union has been pushing for promotions and salary increment for teachers.
Further, the KNUT boss sought a reversal of the punitive teacher transfers arguing that the employer should transfer tutors from one station to another on a needs basis.
As of July 2022, the teachers were not satisfied with Magoha's achievement in reviewing teachers' salaries.
