By Benedict Ng’etich
The Senate Standing Committee on Labour and Social Welfare has said it is working on a uniform scheme of service for all Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers in the country.
Speaking during a joint session of the senators and members of the Kericho County Assembly to discuss a petition filed in Senate by some ECDE teachers from Kericho county, Mr Johnson Sakaja, the committee chairman, said that many counties were unable to implement the schemes of service, which had been presented by TSC and approved by the Council of Governors in 2018, due to budgetary constraints.
The grievances in the petition filed by Mr. Peter Kiplangat Mutai, Jane Chelangat Kosgey and Mr. Robert Maritim dated 20th September 2021 included:
- Non-confirmation of employment of ECD Teachers in the County since 2014
- Non-implementation of ECD teachers’ scheme of service
- Unprocedural stoppage of ECD teachers’ stipends
- Poor and discriminatory remuneration which has greatly affected productivity leading to non-performance, resignations, brain drain amongst other adverse effects
- Non-implementation of the ECD stakeholders agreement requiring the County Government to allocate 25% of its budget to the Education Sector
- Inhumane transfers contravening Article 41 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010
Their petition revealed that they had made the best efforts to have those matters addressed by the Kericho County Government Executive, the Kericho County Public Service Board, the Kericho County Assembly and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to no avail.
Their petition also revealed that none of the issues in their petition was pending in any court of Law or any other legal body.
The petitioners urged the Senate to:
- Investigate and conduct an inquiry into the matter and into any other matters touching on ECD teachers’ welfare by interrogating the County Secretary, County Public Service Board and other relevant staff or parties.
- Recommend the confirmation of employment of all ECD Teachers below 50 years of age who meet the criteria of employment on permanent and pensionable terms by the Kericho County Public Service Board and the confirmation of employment of ECD Teachers over the age of 51 years and above on fixed contract terms until their mandatory retirement at 60 years.
- Recommend the implementation of the scheme of service.
- Ensure that the Kericho County ECD teachers are well remunerated like their counterparts in counties like Mandera and Kajiado who earn between Shs 25,000 and Shs 30,000 respectively.
- Recommend for the improvement of ECD Teachers welfare amongst other relevant issues.
- Publish a report pronouncing the serious breaches of Labour Laws that the ECD residents suffered.
The Nairobi County Senator said the Senate will soon have an engagement with the COG over the same so as to ensure that all the ECDE teachers have the same remuneration.
‘The government should take the plight of ECDE teachers seriously since it’s the teachers who lay the foundation for learners,’ he implored.
Sakaja revealed that there was a Bill before the Senate that had been sponsored by the Labor committee to harmonize all the public service boards.
He ordered the Kericho County Executive led by the acting County Executive Committee Member for Education Dr. Shadrack Mutai, together with the county Public Service Board and the representatives of the petitioners to write a report to the Senate within the next 14 days so as to enable the Senate to write a final report on the guidelines touching on all the ECDE teachers in the county.
Dr. Mutai appealed to the County Assembly of Kericho to set aside Shs 226 million to be used in conforming the ECDE teachers on Permanent and Pensionable terms during the next and final budget.
The Chairman of the County Public Service Board Prof. Joel Koech said that the county treated all the care givers equally and that they had finalized scrutinizing teachers who were registered with the TSC so as to award them with better schemes of service.
‘We won’t stick to education policies which disadvantage certificate holders in favour of diploma and degree holders,’ he said.
