The Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Teachers (KUNOPPET) West Pokot Branch Executive Secretary, Joseph Sarich has termed the purported recent confirmation of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers into permanent and pensionable (PnP) terms as a slap in the face for all teachers and a big joke.
Speaking to the media from his office in Makutano town recently, he asserted that after continuous and extensive engagement with the affected teachers, and leaders it was unanimously agreed that demonstrations will take place in the coming days.
He added that all the teachers were completely discontented since they had two parallel letters of confirmation, one written in 2022 by the previous county government under the leadership of former governor Prof John Lonyangapuo while the other by the current one under Simon Kachapin all of which were formally signed by the county boards all of which are authentic and assented to by the county assembly.
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Sarich observed that the first letters issued in 2022 were so explicit since they specified the terms and conditions for the job offer while the second batch of 2024 lacked the merit of qualifying to be letters of serious offer.
“It’s unfortunate that after receiving the 2024 letters of offer, some members felt sick while others felt humiliation and rage in equal measure since they were astonishingly identified as clerical officers, temporary workers with less than 30 of them classified as teachers,” he said.
The furious official said that he was speaking on behalf of 1675 ECDE teachers and outlined that from reliable sources he had gathered absolutely trustworthy information that the governor was being misled by a few people who were after his downfall.
He stated that all teachers will be assembling at the county headquarters when schools resume for third term and he expects no ECDE teacher to report to work.
For example, according to one of the letters seen by Education News, an ECDE Teacher II in job group H earned a monthly salary of Ksh33, 980 in their 2022 appointment letter. However, in the 2024 appointment letter, the same teacher’s salary was shockingly revised downwards to Ksh26, 900.
One of the July 2024 payslips, seen by this newspaper, indicated that an ECDE teacher had surprisingly been re-designated as a clerical officer to the chagrin of the tutors who take home earnings amounting to Ksh19, 220.
By Our Correspondent
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