Start date: 2015
End date: 2015
Project Categories:
HTUR
Status Teachers
Trade and Education
VET
Description:
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is a teacher trade union founded 55 years ago. It has a membership of 190,000 teachers.
The Union represents teachers working in public primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
There are 110 branches each with a branch executive secretary.
Branch executive secretaries are teachers elected by other teachers. Some have no experience in office management, human and financial resources and/or advocacy skills.
The geographical location of schools poses a challenge as accessibility to some schools is difficult, complicating resource allocation.
Branch executive secretaries are expected to work and negotiate with regional arms of the government, which have highly skilled officers and with wealth of experience.
Goals:
In order to achieve KNUT’s mission of uniting teachers to:
• develop a focused, well-informed leadership;
• meet the high expectations of the membership.
Number of participants : 110
Target group: Branch executive secretaries
Core values: KNUT represents and stands for the interests of Kenyan teachers. The Union has two wings: professional and trade union, guided by the KNUT constitution with the motto ‘Service and Justice’.
Activities:
KNUT proposes using training skills and good practices from NUT ‘technical advisers’ or ‘think tank’ to carry out the training of trainers who will be used to train the branch executive secretaries and thereafter carry out the other program activities.
Training of KNUT trainers:
The pool of trainers would be drawn from the KNUT executive officers, members of the KNUT steering committee and some selected NEC members.
Training of branch executive secretaries:
Divided into eight working regions, all the branch executive secretaries will undergo a seven day intensive residential training covering:
• office management skills
• governance issues in Kenya with a bias on trade unionism and relevant law
• the role, responsibilities and obligations of the branch executive secretary
• effective leadership, organisational and role conflict management
• building networks and effective partnerships in the world of work
• managing stress and stress levels.
Mapping of networks and partnerships:
Using geographical locations, branches will identify key partners and networks in education and establish working relations that are relevant to the union and the school communities.
Setting criteria for the best practices:
Borrowing from best practices of NUT, the union will set up criteria for branches that are well run and striving to achieve high standards of management.
Contact person:
NUT International Team
KNUT
http://www.knut.or.ke/
NUT, UK
www.teachers.org.uk
