Union explains why schools go for unqualified non-teaching staff

A union representing all non-teaching staff in secondary schools in the country has cited low salary offers and no job security as the major reasons why a good number of principals employ the unqualified personnel.

Kenya Union of Secondary School Non-teaching Staff (KUSSNTS) Eastern Region Secretary Alexander Muthiathi told Education News in a recent interview that due to luck of a scheme of service for this cadre of staff working in public secondary schools, several schools hire workers who are desperate enough and can work for any offer.

“The reason why principal hire unqualified staff is because of low salary offer, which has no job security. It is only during interviews for Non-teaching Staff where workers are only asked how much they would be comfortable to receive,” he said.

Muthiathi observed that he was concerned by a case reported to Machakos labour office regarding two schools; ABC Makivenzi Girls and Ivingoni Secondary from Eastern region where according to Muthiathi, Makivenzi Girls has never paid workers in totality period COVID 19, even after the government released the funds to cushion the non-teaching staff and teachers who were employed on Board of Management (BOM) terms.

In a letter dated November 17, 2022 by the Machakos County’s labour office to the General Secretary of KUSSNTS and the Principal of Makivenzi Girls for reconciliation, the issue in the dispute was failure to pay workers salary for five months in the year 2020.

For the case of Ivingoni secondary school, Muthiathi noted that the schools has also not paid three workers who were laid down under redundancy; as confirmed in a letter dated October 24, 2022 by the Machakos Labour office’s to KUSSNTS Secretary General and the Principal of the School, which was seeking to reconcile the two parties in the dispute.

At one point in May 20, 2021 the union wrote a letter to the Education Ministry seeking an intervention of the Ministry in addressing the issue of unpaid leave and salary arrears facing the non-teaching staffs in public schools; in particular on the issue of unpaid leave, unpaid leave indefinitely and nonpayment of salary year 2020 for non-teaching staff which was caused by long closure of schools due to COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020.

Muthiathi now notes that to tame this mess of employment of unqualified staff, is the high time to offer a scheme of service for this lot adding that for the Government to employ qualified workers, they should have a budget for them through a specific vote head in the Free Secondary capitation funds being disbursed by government to schools.

“In any case, the vote head for personal emoluments is not specific; it’s clumped with other vote heads like EWC (Electricity and Water Conservation), RMI (Repair, Maintenance and Improvement) among others. Now if a bursar receives Ksh12, 000 what of the other junior employees like cooks and security officers get?” poised Muthiathi.

The Ministry normally allocates a total of Sh.  9,400 per leaner annually as other vote heads, while parents with children in boarding schools required to pay an additional amount besides the government grant on the vote head.

This other vote heads include Local Travel and Transport (abbreviated as LT & T in most cases), Administration, Electricity and Water Conservation (EWC), and Personnel Emolument (P.E).

According to Kilemi Mwiria Taskforce Report of 2014 on non-teaching staff (NTS) for secondary schools, a day school with one stream is supposed to have a total of 5 NTS, a two-stream day school need to have a maximum of 7 support staff, three stream school need to have 11 NTS.

A four-stream day secondary school is required to have a maximum of 14 support staff; a five-stream school need to have a maximum of 16 NTS while a six-stream day secondary school is required to hire a total of 19 NTS.

For boarding schools; a school with only one stream is required to have a maximum of 9 NTS, two stream need to have 12 NTS; with three, four and five stream the School BOM need to employ a total of 16, 22 and 28 NTS respectively.

A boarding secondary school with six and seven streams on the other hand need to hire a total of 33 and 36 support staff respectively, while eight to 15 streams the BOM is only required to employ a maximum of 37 NTS in the school.

The report also recommended various minimum qualifications for each category of NTS in Secondary Schools for instance school bursars was expected to have a qualification of Certified Public Accountant (CPA) III, Office Messengers were to have a basic requirement of Form Four academic papers (KCSE), catering staff their qualification was a Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) certificate in catering.

Cooks were expected to have Form Four qualification, Kitchen hand staffs were to be those with Kenya Certificates of Primary Education (KCPE) holders, school nurse was to have a certificate in nursing, security personnel were required to have standard eight certificates, storekeepers was to have a certificate in procurement or supplies management among others.

Kilemi Mwiria proposed salaries of Non-Teaching Staff in Secondary Schools

By Roy Hezron

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