Real life experience
Sep 07, 2011
THEY say you can never appreciate what you have until it is gone; I learnt that lesson the hard way. I was earning sh350,000 in a government school. For a man with a wife and three children to look after, that money was peanuts.
THEY say you can never appreciate what you have until it is gone; I learnt that lesson the hard way. I was earning sh350,000 in a government school. For a man with a wife and three children to look after, that money was peanuts.
I started working as a part-time teacher in a private school. I was paid per hour I worked. We had a mutual understanding with the school authorities and they always paid me on time.
I would often hear the permanent teachers complaining about late payment, but I dismissed their whining as acts of ingratitude.
Soon an opportunity for a permanent mathematics teacher came up in the school. The headmaster convinced me to take up the job. It was an offer I could not resist as my salary was to be doubled and I was promised other bonuses.
Three months after I joined the school, it was sold off. The head teacher who had encouraged me to join the school was dismissed. I had not signed any contract. It was just an understanding between me and the school authorities.
Soon the sh700,000 I was earning was reduced to Sh500,000. I was told that the school was going through hardships because of the transition so I had to bear with them. Plus, they felt they were doing me a favour because there was no evidence to show that I was supposed to earn that amount of money.
Things were not any better in the classroom. The rules were clear; teachers who failed to produce good grades would lose their jobs. The students were different from those in my previous school. They were indisciplined, yet we were not allowed to punish them.
To make things worse, students were allowed to join in the course of the term after getting expelled from other schools. Trying to make such students pass was like trying to squeeze water out of a rock.
It became common for me to spend a month or two without getting paid. And yet, I was still better off than those that were teaching arts subjects. They were paid very little just because it was easy to replace them. I remember a history teacher who was fired after she wrote a letter to the administration demanding a salary increment.
Most of us were parents; we relied on coaching students to be able take care of our families. I used to hide students in my living room every holiday, to ensure that the police did not find us.
By the time I left the school, I was demanding over sh4m, but I could not report to any authority because I did not have a contract to show I was an employee of the school.
I started working as a part-time teacher in a private school. I was paid per hour I worked. We had a mutual understanding with the school authorities and they always paid me on time.
I would often hear the permanent teachers complaining about late payment, but I dismissed their whining as acts of ingratitude.
Soon an opportunity for a permanent mathematics teacher came up in the school. The headmaster convinced me to take up the job. It was an offer I could not resist as my salary was to be doubled and I was promised other bonuses.
Three months after I joined the school, it was sold off. The head teacher who had encouraged me to join the school was dismissed. I had not signed any contract. It was just an understanding between me and the school authorities.
Soon the sh700,000 I was earning was reduced to Sh500,000. I was told that the school was going through hardships because of the transition so I had to bear with them. Plus, they felt they were doing me a favour because there was no evidence to show that I was supposed to earn that amount of money.
Things were not any better in the classroom. The rules were clear; teachers who failed to produce good grades would lose their jobs. The students were different from those in my previous school. They were indisciplined, yet we were not allowed to punish them.
To make things worse, students were allowed to join in the course of the term after getting expelled from other schools. Trying to make such students pass was like trying to squeeze water out of a rock.
It became common for me to spend a month or two without getting paid. And yet, I was still better off than those that were teaching arts subjects. They were paid very little just because it was easy to replace them. I remember a history teacher who was fired after she wrote a letter to the administration demanding a salary increment.
Most of us were parents; we relied on coaching students to be able take care of our families. I used to hide students in my living room every holiday, to ensure that the police did not find us.
By the time I left the school, I was demanding over sh4m, but I could not report to any authority because I did not have a contract to show I was an employee of the school.