The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to question Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Chief Executive Officer David Njeng’ere over reports that tutors who oversaw the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) national examinations are yet to be paid.
Teachers, through their unions, have lamented that more than 50,000 who supervised, invigilated and marked the exams have not been paid.
The Ministry of Education has claimed that the non-payment of wages to examiners and invigilators is due to budgetary constraints.
Earlier, lawmakers had proposed the establishment of a special kitty to pay the teachers who attend to students during the exams.
“We need to be a bit creative and say that part of the money paid by candidates in order to take examinations should be earmarked or budgeted so that it is used to pay teachers,” said Narok Senator Ledama Olekina adding that KNEC should pay a fine for the massive delay.
“KNEC should explain why it has not paid the teachers despite concluding the exercise months ago,” nominated Senator Esther Okenyuri chipped in.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang earlier said that KNEC had until August to clear the payments shuttering hopes for the examiners who had hoped to receive their pay before the end of 2022\23 financial year on June 30.
He noted that the Ksh1 billion required to pay the more than 40,000 examiners who marked the 2022 examinations will be factored in the 2023/2024 financial year.
“The ministry requires Ksh1 billion to pay the teachers who marked exams, we have until August to pay them,” he said.
By Thuita Jaswant
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