The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced that as of Tuesday, October 5, 2021, 90 teachers had succumbed to Covid-19 related complications since its outbreak in mid-March 2020.
TSC made the announcement, urging tutors to adhere to the safety guidelines issued by the government through the Ministry of Health.
In April, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia announced that the country had lost 41 teachers and three secretariat staff to Covid-19 complications since March 2020.
Medics carrying out mass testing for Covid-19. |Photo| Courtesy|
Meaning, 49, more teachers have succumbed to the virus in a period of six months.
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The TSC CEO has continued to call upon teachers in the country to get vaccinated, and ensure their safety, and that of students against the virus.
In August, Macharia warned tutors that they would risk missing out on their salaries if they failed to get vaccinated.
The directive was in line with the order issued by Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua requiring all civil servants in the country to take the two full doses of the vaccine.
As at the time, only 110,342 teachers had taken the full dose of the vaccine since the process began. The number was short of the commission's target of 330,671.
Today, Macharia congratulated all teachers in the country, recognising them for their selfless efforts in the fight against the pandemic.
As the world celebrates the World Teachers' Day 2021, Macharia noted that tutors have been at the forefront of fighting the virus, while ensuring quality delivery of education.
"Happy World Teachers' Day 2021. Our dear teachers, we celebrate you for your tireless efforts towards ensuring quality education for the learner. You are truly the cornerstone of the country's positive trajectory on the path to education recovery during the Covid-19 era," Macharia stated.
"This occasion is significant since it brings to the fore, the significant role that teachers play in the provision of quality education," she said.
Macharia recognised 31 of the most outstanding teachers, those who have consistently demonstrated exemplary performance in teaching, management and effective delivery of the curriculum for quality education.
"All of us agree that the audacity of teachers to defy the COVID-19 rage in October last year and return to school in support of the 1st phase of schools' reopening was the gamechanger," she noted.
"No one can gainsay the fact that teachers have been at the centre of resuscitating our academic programmes in Kenya after we were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic," she added.
The TSC CEO argued that had teachers failed to support the Government's move, then efforts to recover the lost academic time arising from the school closures occasioned by the pandemic will all have come to naught.
