By Amoto Ndiewo
The National Assembly through the Senate yesterday gave the 47 county governments a 60-day ultimatum to increase salary packages for over 42, 700 Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) tutors they have employed.
“The Senate Education Committee recommends that all county governments should provide a budget for ECDE and effect salary increment within 60 days of tabling this report,” remarked Alice Milgo who chairs the Senate Education Committee.
This development comes in the wake of the revelation before the senate’s education committee that 23 counties are yet to begin the process of implementing an existing scheme of service for early education for ECDE teachers.
The report revealed that only eight counties are fully paying the tutors what they are entitled to under the said scheme of service. The report further states that the other 16 are partially paying them.
“The 23 counties have not initiated any process to implement the scheme of service. They pay the ECDE tutors stipend with most of the teachers paid by parents,’’ said Hon Milgo.
She added that few of the tutors are employed by the devolved unit are on a permanent basis.
“The Parents Teachers Association (PTA) employ another 4,000 ECDE tutors with pay as low as Sh7,000 per month,” she noted, adding that the highest paid ECDE tutor pockets Sh40,000 monthly with the majority working on short term basis thus missing on the pension scheme.
Milgo complained that: “Some ECDE tutors have not received stipends for work since 2013, this is despite a draft validated by stakeholders, the National Treasury and Teachers Service Commission,” said Milgo.
The Education Committee disclosed that the report was in response to a petition filed by Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua.
In the petition, Senator Wambua outlined the plight of nursery school tutors who lay a crucial role in the formative years of learners across the country.
The committee further directed the Council of Governance to prepare a budget for ECDE, do a review of their job description and submit them to the Salaries Remuneration Committee (SRC) within 100 days.
