Through the directive issued by the Senate, the 47 devolved units have been given a 60-day ultimatum to ensure all nursery school teachers receive increased pay.
The targeted teachers in this new directive are 42,700 who are employed by different counties.
“The committee recommends that all county governments should provide a budget for ECDE and effect salary increment within 60 days of tabling this report,” she remarked.
This follows a revelation before Parliament’s Committee on Education that 23 counties have not initiated the process to implement an existing scheme for early childhood development education teachers (ECDE).
Only eight counties are fully paying nursery teachers what they are entitled too according to the scheme, while 16 others are partially paying the tutors.
“The 23 counties have not initiated any process to implement the scheme of service. They pay ECDE teachers’ stipend with most of the teachers paid by parents,” stated Alice Milgo, who chairs the committee.
According to Milgo, out of 2,700 teachers employed by the devolved units, only 13,502 have permanent contracts.
4,000 teachers in nursery school institutions are remunerated by parent teachers’ associations with their pay being as low as Ksh7,000.
The highest paid ECDE teacher by the counties earns Ksh40,000 with most of them being employed only on short term contracts hence missing out on their pensionable terms.
“Some ECDE teachers received stipends for work done since 2013. This is despite a draft scheme of service being validated by stakeholders, the National Treasury, the Teachers Service Commission and the National Treasury,” Milgo added.
The Education Committee compiled the report after a petition was filed by Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua detailing the plight of teachers, who play a key role especially in laying the foundation for learners.
The committee further directed the Council of Governance to provide a budget for ECDE and review their job description and forward it to Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for review within 100 days.
