School children are working as teachers strike

Children from unstable financial backgrounds are being forced to work as the teachers strike continues. 
Thousands of school children from around Kenya are doubling up, putting in working hours before heading to the library. Students are now overwhelming libraries in order to find a place to study for the upcoming KCSE and KCPE exams.
Gladys Chonga, a librarian in Mombasa. told the Daily Nation about the situation: “It is now

a crisis. As you can see, others are outside because we cannot accommodate all of them,”

Studies have indicated that students who spend time outside of the classroom will have lower test scores. Students who lose out on time due to teachers strikes are also more likely to fall behind in school and miss out on university level education.
Many school children thrown out of class around the country are being forced into work, in order to supplement the family income and stay afloat.

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The continuing strike has raised concerns about students remaining idle with those who are supposed to be preparing for exams thrown out of the structure of the classroom.
The teachers strike has entered it’s fourth week, since being called on Tuesday, September 1. The strike will likely become the longest in Kenya’s history.
President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke about the ongoing education crisis with a speech at State House on Sunday, September 20. The President claimed that the amount needed to pay teachers would increase the VAT from 18% to 22%.

“It is wrong to hold our children hostage for wage demands,”  the President said. 

Despite the teachers strike, the KCSE and KCPE exams will go forward. The KCPE will start on Tuesday, November 10 and end on Thursday, November 12. Teachers have stated that they will not to mark national exams while the strike continues.
The KCSE will start with even less time for students to prepare,  with KCSE theory papers to start on Monday, October 12, nine days earlier than they traditionally begin (Form Four tests usually begin a day after Mashujaa Day). The KCSE assessment for oral and practical examinations is scheduled to begin in less than a week on Monday, September 28.


SOURCE: Daily nation, Tuko.co.ke