The 47 county governments have been given an ultimatum to raise nursery school teacher salaries.
The Senate issued a directive giving the 47 devolved units a 60-day deadline to ensure that all nursery school teachers receive increased pay.
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This new directive specifically targets 42,700 teachers employed by various counties.
“The committee recommends that all county governments should provide a budget for ECDE and effect salary increment within 60 days of tabling this report,” she remarked.
This comes after it was revealed before Parliament’s Education Committee that 23 counties have yet to begin the process of implementing an existing scheme for early childhood development education teachers (ECDE).
Only eight counties are fully paying nursery teachers what they are entitled to under the scheme, while the remaining sixteen are only partially paying the tutors.
“The 23 counties have not initiated any process to implement the scheme of service. They pay ECDE teachers’ stipend with most of the teachers paid by parents,” stated Alice Milgo, who chairs the committee.
According to Milgo, only 13,502 of the 2,700 teachers employed by the devolved units have permanent contracts.
Parent teachers’ associations remunerate 4,000 teachers in nursery school institutions, with pay as low as Ksh7,000.
The county’s highest-paid ECDE teacher earns Ksh40,000, with the majority of them working on short-term contracts and thus missing out on pensionable terms.
“Some ECDE teachers received stipends for work done since 2013. This is despite a draft scheme of service being validated by stakeholders, the National Treasury, the Teachers Service Commission and the National Treasury,” Milgo added.
The Education Committee compiled the report in response to a petition filed by Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua outlining the plight of teachers, who play a critical role in laying the groundwork for learners.
The committee also directed the Council of Governance to prepare a budget for ECDE, review their job descriptions, and submit them to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for review within 100 days.
