KUPPET: “Teachers must be trained and provided with guns”

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) wants the government to issue teachers with security training and provide them with guns. KUPPET wants teachers that are mostly based in volatile parts of Kenya to be trained.

According to Acting Secretary General for KUPPET, Moses Nthurima, teachers must be trained and afterwards provided with guns.

This decision comes after constant attacks that teachers have undergone to which students either brutally hurt the teacher or carried knives and guns to class. Also the teachers who have died in the hands of armed gunmen in Coast regions and North-Eastern.

In addition, Nthurima says once teachers will be provided with guns accordingly, the students will not attack them or the teachers will not live in fear. He says bandits will think twice before hurting any teacher, especially the teachers based in insecure areas of the country.

Additionally, they want the government to lessen the number of boarding schools with an intention of completely eliminate them. Their concern is that the boarding schools are overworking teachers.

Meanwhile, the KUPPET boss says that once the learners are taken to boarding school for a period of three months, when the school closes, the learners are foreigners to their parents. His aim is to ensure that learners get home every day after school so that they can get knowledge from parents and also get knowledge from teachers while in school.

Consequently, they are urging the government to employ teachers who will only work in schools to guide and counsel the students. Teachers who will be allocated the guidance and counseling role will follow up on students that have issues and ensure they are counseled accordingly.

Furthermore, the union wants teachers to have risk allowance considering the constant insecurities form bandits and learners.

Recently, HELLO NEWS reported a case where a student in Kisii County injured two teachers by stabbing them a couple of times after he was summoned to the staffroom.