PRESS RELEASE ON THE TEACHERS STRIKE Following the meeting held between His Excellency the President, the

Prime Minister, the Vice President, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and the Minister of Education this evening, on the ongoing teachers strike, we wish to inform you as follows:1. Recognizing the severe shortage of teachers in the country, (now estimated at 80,000) and noting that the government hired 18,000 teachers on contract basis last year in an attempt to bridge the shortage, the Government has decided as follows: That the 18,000 teachers currently serving on contract will continue to do so as per the agreement signed between the two unions (Kenya National Union of Teachers and KUPPET). The Government commits that the 18,000 teachers serving on contract will be recruited to permanent and pensionable terms after serving for three years. This applies to the subsequent groups of contract teachers to be hired. Additionally, for any other teaching positions that will arise in the interim period, e.g. due to natural attrition, the teachers on contract will receive first priority in the filling of those positions in the order in which they were hired. That the Government will immediately embark on recruitment of another 20,000 teachers on contract basis and will do so at the same rate (i.e. employing 20,000 teachers each year) for the next three years in order to substantially reduce the current shortage of teachers in the country.

 That the Teachers Service Commission together with the Ministry of Education will work to harmonize deployment of teachers to address regional imbalances and disparities. 2. With these measures we now urge the Union to call off the strike and that school programmes and operations should resume immediately. We wish to reiterate the Governments commitment to continue to provide quality education to our children because we are convinced of the importance of human capital to the realization of our development objectives as articulated in Vision 2030. This commitment is demonstrated by the budgetary resources we have continued to commit to this sector which has risen from KSh. 67 Billion in FY 2002/2003 to 202. Billion in the current financial year.

3.

UHURU KENYATTA, EGH, MP SAM K. ONGERI, EGH, MP DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER FOR EDUCTION MINISTER FOR FINANCE September 7, 2011