Quit before contesting, teachers told

TEACHERS who are interested in contesting the upcoming local level government (LLG) elections and by-elections have to resign from teaching, an official says.
Teaching Service Commission (TSC) chairman Samson Wangihome said teachers who had quit were free to contest but teachers who were teaching had to follow procedures.
“While it is your constitutional right to contest the elections, but with rights come responsibilities and you’ve got to be responsible,” he said.
“It is imperative for any member of the Teaching Service intending to contest elections to adhere to Section 124 of the Teaching Service Act,” he said.
“This entails submitting a resignation letter before the issue of writs, clearly stating the resignation date.”
Wangihome noted that copies of the resignation letter must be addressed to the TSC chairman and delivered to the TSC provincial adviser.
“Furthermore, it’s essential for the teacher to cease teaching and leave the school on the mentioned resignation date,” he said.
He mentioned that if there were teachers still in the school while contesting, community leaders and parents are urge to report them to TSC.
“But the catch is this, if you lose the election and you want to be reinstated, you must do it two months after the return of writs. Failure to do so, means you’d be deemed to have resigned and we would terminate you from the teaching service,” Wangihome said.
“I must emphasise that resigned and retired teachers are not to contest because they are not members of the teaching service anymore,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wangihome assured teachers who were affected by natural disasters that they would still be on salary and urged them to stay safe until normalcy returned.