The Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers now want their employment taken up by the Teacher Service Commission (TSC).
They say currently they have poor pay and are working under abominable conditions under the county governments.
In a recent conference themed ‘Empowering the ECDE Teacher for a Better Future’ that brought them all together at Nairobi’s Lavington Primary School recently, the clarion call was that their engagement terms must be shifted to TSC.
Through the Kenya Union of Pre-primary Education Teachers (KUNOPPET), which organized the conference, the teachers argued that the current Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) fully recognizes the ECDE as part of the basic education structure.
According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Competence Building Society of Early Childhood Education for Kenya (CBSECE Kenya) David Ochola, there are serious gaps in the management of the ECDEs.
“You are employed by the county working under a primary school head teacher employed by the national government; you are both subscribed to different norms and rules. This is why we are proposing that these (ECDE) teachers must now be employed by the Teachers Service Commission so that we avoid this discourse in terms of management,” Ochola said.
He noted that the county governments can remain with infrastructure management, resource allocation, and feeding program.
“If it is the constitution, it was made by us; why don’t we sit down and see where we can do amendments? If it is legislation, we have the Senate which deals with county government issues, we have the National Assembly and county assemblies,” posed Ochola.
The same was echoed by Omboko Milemba, the Emuhaya Member of Parliament (MP) and National Chairman of Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), who said with the introduction of CBC, ECDE has now been mainstreamed and is part of the basic education structure.
“With CBC, the school system is one. The law has already mainstreamed ECDE, so there is no reason whatsoever why you should be under a different employer,” said Milemba.
The same was backed by Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Deputy Secretary General Hesbon Otieno, who noted that it is time county governments were forced to implement the ECDE scheme of services for improved terms of engagement.
KUNOPPET National Chairman Laurence Otunga on his part stated that ECDE teachers must be respected, noting that the sub-sector has been undermined, underpaid, and overworked.
However, TSC chairperson Dr. Jamleck Muturi John, who was the chief guest during the conference, reiterated that the Commission will stick to the constitution while discharging its duties, observing that ECDE is a devolved function.
“It is important for us to adhere to the constitution…that ECDE as far as the Fourth Schedule is concerned is a devolved function and therefore, we cannot contravene the Constitution,” said Dr. Muturi.
He added that they have registered a total of 115,433 ECDE teachers since 2014, but their work simply stops there.
Court cases
The Employment and Labour Relation Court (ELRC) in March 2023 halted plans by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), which would have directly affected over 45,000 ECDE teachers, with Justice Ann Mwaure ordering the government to retain the current salaries until a case filed by KUPPET was heard and determined.
In the case, Milemba argued that the SRC circular suggested that a nursery school teacher’s salary would be cut by half, meaning some will get lower salaries than their house helps who earn at least Ksh13,000. He stated that the minimum wage set by the law is at least Ksh13,572.
The court heard that there are 43,874 ECDE teachers employed by the 47 county governments, but only 14,919 were on permanent and pensionable terms.
Otunga congratulated Embu County, which currently pays ECDE teachers well while castigating Homa Bay for rushing to implement the SRC advisory to effectively demoralize them and resulting in the death of some of them owing to depression.
By Roy Hezron
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