What ECDE teachers stand to lose if SRC cuts salaries

By Roy Hezron

The government is planning to downscale salaries of Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) teachers in a proposed policy change by Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) that will have far-reaching implications on the future of government salary arrangements.

If implemented, it will be a precursor and a reference point of salary reviews, meaning the government can review salaries downwards for every cadre of employees, a strange turn that has never been seen before.

Effectively, the ECDE teacher is bound to lose income after the controversial proposal that expects county governors to pay the teachers extremely low monthly salaries.

According to SRC, the lowest ECDE teacher who is a certificate holder (entry level), that is Assistant ECDE Teacher III, is scaled down to between Ksh7,836 and Ksh8,717 as basic salary per month.

The highest paid ECDE teacher, a Diploma holder or Senior ECDE Teacher I with 15 years of experience, will earn a monthly basic salary of between Ksh15,224 and Ksh19,064.

SRC is however  silent on the minimum and maximum salary for the degree holders despite categorizing  them into seven Job Evaluation (JE)grades; Graduate ECDE Teacher III (entry), II and I, Principal Graduate ECDE Teacher II and I(Assistant Director); Senior Principal Graduate ECDE Teacher II (Deputy Director) and Chief Principal ECDE Teacher (Director).

And now the ECDE teachers, through their Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Teachers (KUNOPPET), have rejected the SRC-proposed salaries, stating that they are far much below the country’s minimum gazetted wage.

While addressing the media on February 5, 2023 at Nairobi’s Chester House, the national chairman Lawrence Otunga said that already some counties have started implementing the SRC advisory.

“Already, some counties including Homa-Bay have formally notified our members of the intention to revise the salaries downwards,” said Otunga.

The SRC salaries are below what the county bosses had agreed to implement in the Schemes of Service for ECDE Teachers during the Council of Governors (COG) meeting on December 20, 2021.

The council’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mary Mwiti, through a letter dated January 5, 2022, asked all County Executive Committee Members (CECMs) in charge of Finance and Education, as well as county secretaries, to use the approved Scheme of Service (SoS) when recruiting new ECDE teachers.

Under the COG salary structure, ECDE teachers who are certificate holders at Job Group ‘F’ earn Ksh16,250, Diploma holders at Job Group ‘H’ Ksh27,195, while Degree holders at Job Group ‘K’ get Ksh33,994 as basic monthly salary across all counties.

Apart from the basic monthly salary, teachers enjoy house allowances which vary from Ksh2,700 to Ksh16,500 depending on one’s Job Group and their work station. They also get a commuter allowance of Ksh3,000 for certificate holders, Ksh4,000 for Diploma holders and Ksh5,000 for Degree holders. They stand to lose all these if the SRC directive is adopted.

“For some years, we were very happy that the CoG disregarded the SRC and instructed all the 47 CECMs in charge of finance to implement the SoS that was drafted. But to our shock, the SRC has reminded all governors to ensure that no ECDE teacher’s salary is above the SRC’s salary structure,” said Otunga.

According to the Union, SRC has overstepped its mandate since according to Article 230 (4) (b) of the constitution, they are only advisors to both levels of government on remuneration and benefits of all public officers.

Otunga stated further that what SRC had done was setting salaries when the law does not allow it.

“We therefore reject the SRC’s inhumane, unfair, and illegal job evaluation grading and salary structure for the ECDE teachers in Kenya. We will ensure that the ECDE teachers are not undermined, underpaid and overworked. Our legal team is working on this matter and very soon we’ll meet the SRC in court,” he said.

His sentiments were supported by the Union Secretary General Samuel Opiyo, who urged the teachers to remain calm as they work out things, ruling out strikes as they minded the rights of the children who know nothing about SRC and salaries.

An Economic Survey report released in 2022 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that there were 68,599 ECDE teachers (11,225 male and 57,374 female), with the total number of registered  public pre-primary schools being 28,585.

Comparison between COG’s ECDE teachers’ salaries and proposed SRC Grading and Remuneration Structure