By Hezron Roy
Kenya Union of Secondary School Non-Teaching Staff (KUSSNTS) has urged the government to directly absorb and employ all non-teaching staff under permanent and pensionable terms.
The Non-Teaching Staff (NTS) also want their salaries to be paid directly to their bank accounts as is the case for other civil servants.
In their recommendations and proposals to the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms chaired by Prof. Raphael Munavu on November 11, 2022 at the University of Nairobi’s ground, the NTS in Nairobi County secondary schools through KUSSNTS proposed that there should be job security and appropriate grading of NTS as per civil servant scale and scheme of service.
“Secondary schools are public entities since they are financed from public funds, hence any staff offering services to any public entity is a public servant, amongst them all non-teaching staff in public secondary schools,” reads the recommendations in part.
The proposals were compiled and submitted by the union administrator Eastern Regional Secretary Alexander Muthiani and Peter Kimoni who is the Union Co-ordinator.
The proposals further suggested that there should be a scheme of service for non-teaching staff which should be adhered to when it comes to recruitment, promotion, remuneration, termination and payment of terminal dues to avert the current discrimination and unfairness being witnessed and that the NTS professional staff be trained regularly to match technology and needs of the schools.
Some of the challenges secondary schools non-teaching staff encounter include: low pay, lack of job description, lack of appointment letters, long working hours, lack of job security, unsafe working conditions, lack of retirement package, denied allowances, mistreatment, lack of scheme of service, and frustration and dismissal when one joins a trade union.
Fair treatment, Representation
The non-teaching staff want the management of their affairs to be detached from the school Boards of Management (BOMs) for fairness and uniformity, since different BOMs manage them in different ways.
They further want to be answerable to the Ministry of Education directly and not the school BOMs and that their recruitment and termination should be done as per Employment Act and the civil servants scheme of service.
In addition, they also want professional NTS to be able to be transferred to different schools across the country.
Currently, non-teaching staff are not represented in the school BOMs which is composed of Principal, two teachers, the Church, community, six parents and the area Member of Parliament.
The NTS want proper and fair representation in all sittings discussing issues regarding secondary schools just like in any other sector in the government.
They recommended that a representative of the non-teaching staff in schools, preferably the bursar or finance officer, should be part of the school BoM and that the Ministry of Education should have sittings with non-teaching staff representatives to discuss matters regarding the secondary schools.
The non-teaching staff want the right and lawful procedure to be adhered to when administering disciplinary actions to them, following scenarios where some BoMs didn’t offer them fair disciplinary hearings.
Clarity in Personal emolument vote-head
They also want clarity on the Personal Emolument (P.E) vote in the Free Day Secondary School capitation, further noting that the vote head should be distinct, very well stipulated and funded as per the school budget and not capitation or enrolment of the school.
They argued that the teaching staff is not paid factoring the school capitation but as per their grading and job groups hence it should be extended to the non-teaching staff.
They argued that the Ministry of Education doesn’t have the data of the non-teaching staff working in the public secondary schools hence under budget for them.
They added that grouping of vote-head currently is punitive and has disadvantaged the school NTS for lack of clarity.
Currently, the Personal Emolument is co-joined with Local Travel and Transport, Administration and Electricity and Water Conservation (EWC) under other vote heads.
Other recommendations and proposals include being allowed to freely join and participate in legal groupings like trade unions and associations, and Savings and Credit Co-operatives (SACCOs) of their choice , NTS membership subscription of these groupings should be done at source; compensation for those get any form of injury or illness in the line of duty and incase of death, the next of kin should be the beneficiary of the same; the government to offer development loans and advances to the NTS to develop themselves since many NTS end up leaving in poverty and hardships especially in times of retirement, and after offering services to secondary schools in their entire life.
