Aids takes heavy toll on teachers
Kenya News Agency
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BETWEEN four and six teachers die every month from HIV/Aids-related ailments, the TSC has said.
The country further loses 18 months of teaching time because of absenteeism by an infected teacher.
The chairman of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Ibrahim Hussein, warned that the gains achieved in the education sector, especially the successful implementation of the free primary education programme could be reversed unless efforts are taken to control the scourge among members.
Hussein said the cost incurred to train teachers to replace those dying due to HIV/Aids was posing serious financial challenges to the country's fragile economy apart from further straining the Ministry of Education's budgetary allocations.
He said: "Even though the Government has consistently strived to ensure that enough teachers are trained to meet the needs of the country, the efforts continue to be undermined by the scourge."
Hussein, who was speaking while officiating at the 45th-graduation ceremony at Igoji Teachers College in Meru regretted that many teachers had left the service prematurely in the last five years owing to Aids. He said the death of a teacher long before retirement age further strained the country's training capacity.
Hussien said the TSC had embarked on an aggressive campaign to create awareness and promote behavioural change to mitigate the impact of HIV/Aids. To achieve this, he said, the TSC had established an Aids control unit whose objective is to help teachers understand HIV/Aids and its impact on them." Hussein, however, stressed on behavioural change and morality.
Meanwhile, the Government is in the process of hiring more computer teachers to be deployed to teachers training colleges to strengthen Information Communication Technology (ICT).
Education Secretary George Godia said the graduate teachers would be hired in the ongoing countrywide teachers recruitment for primary and secondary schools. He was speaking during a graduation ceremony at Eregi TTC in Kakamega District.
Godia said the Government had also allocated Sh2.1 million to the colleges to buy computers. He further said ICT had been integrated into the teachers training curriculum.
He said the move was aimed at ensuring that ICT took root in primary schools.
Also present were Kakamega District Education Officer, Boniface Gitau, University Academic Staff Union (UASU) Chairman Dr. Sammy Kubasu and the college's principal, John Bett.
He told the 594 graduands to avoid temptation to engage in reckless behaviour that could expose them to HIV infections.
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