Govt to pay BOM teachers’ salaries

By Our Reporter

The Ministry of Education through Capitation Grants Scheme will now be paying salaries of Boards of Management (BOM) teachers in all Public schools, Education News has exclusively learnt.
The latest development comes amid orders from the Ministry of Education Science and Technology to school managements not to raise fees with the aim of pooling funds for salaries of BOM teachers, Non-Teaching Staff (NTS) and to cater for overheads of other school projects like setting up new infrastructure, refurbishment and buying buses. The ministry gazetted strict school fees guidelines which prohibit BOMs and any other school authorities to charge extra fees on students, or introduce other levies on learners.

Hence, the BOMs are compelled by a Government order to operate within the feesguidelines for the implementation of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) as set out in a circular (MOE.HQS/3/13/3) dated October 18th, 2017.
According to Parliamentary Committee on Education and Research report made available to Education News, the Ministry of Education has set aside funds to cater for the salaries of BOM teachers in all Government-sponsored schools.
“TPD is a professional responsibility and mandatory for every teacher. Therefore, it is the duty of the teacher to meet the cost of TPD as is the case in other professions,” states the report.
The Departmental Committee on Education and Research chaired by the Member of Parliament for Tinderet Constituency, Julius Melly however doesn’t give details on terms and conditions of service of BOM teachers.
There are no details in the report how this cadre of teachers would be hired, graded, remunerated and their career progression.
The Committee only points out that there is need for the ministry and the Commission to work out the mechanism on how this cadre of teachers would be paid their salaries to ensure that there is adequate teaching in schools. The 19-member Committee notes that teacher shortfall remains the greatest challenge in provision of quality education.
“As at February 2018, teacher shortage stood at 104,821, comprising 40,972 Primary and 63,849 Post-primary teachers. This situation has been occasioned by opening of new schools and the recent Government policy on 100 per cent transition from Primary to Secondary school which commenced in January 2018.
“It should be acknowledged that there is shortage of teachers in the country, and therefore the need to facilitate the Commission to recruit more teachers in order to cover the 100 per cent transition.
“There is also need to start hiring of Intern teachers in order to create a pool of skilled personnel for the Commission to recruit from. The Committee will, therefore, consider allocation of funds towards this item,” states Melly’s team.
The Committee recommends that the Ministry of Education and TSC should establish a clear policy framework on In-service training of teachers to ensure that it is effective and eliminates duplication of functions.
It is further recommended that there should be total restructuring of the quality assurance system in the ministry in collaboration with TSC, and that this should be undertaken to improve on monitoring of the delivery of education services in schools to ensure that quality of education being offered is of required standards.
“The Budget and Appropriation Committee is considering allocating TSC additional Sh8.6 billion for recruitment of teachers to reduce the teacher resources gap and to specifically support the Government’s intended 100 per cent transition rate as a result of introduction of Free Day Secondary Education,” states the report.
The Departmental Committee on Education and Research further observes that the teacher resource in the country currently stands at 312,060, noting that staffing of schools is based on staffing norms which is Curriculum Based Establishment (CBE) for Post-primary institutions and one teacher per class plus 2.5 per cent of the number of classes in a Sub-county for Primary schools.
“We further recommend an allocation of an additional Sh5 billion to recruit additional 12,000 teachers to address the current teacher shortage; an additional Sh3.6 billion to recruit 5,476 teachers to fully cover for the 100 per cent transition from Primary to Secondary; and another additional Sh16 billion to recruit 68,000 Intern teachers,” the Committee states in its report to the Budget and Appropriation Committee.
On capacity building and other operations, the Education Committee recommends an allocation of additional funding of Sh1.1 billion for capacity building of teachers on Curriculum Based Establishment and entrenching Performance Contracting and Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development in schools and an additional funding of Sh485 million to procure vehicles for Sub-county director.
An additional of Sh720 million is recommended for training teachers on Digital Literacy Programme.
It is also recommended that the Government takes over fully payment of salaries ‘for critical Non-Teaching Staff,’ and that this category of staff should be transferred from one institution to another.