Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers in Homa Bay county have threatened to down their tools following the cut in their monthly salaries by the county government.
The teachers' threat follows the alleged new directives by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) which gave directives to the Council of Governors (CoG) on the grading and salary structure of the ECDE teachers.
According to the teachers, Homa Bay County government is already implementing the alleged directives despite the commission denying issuing such advice to the CoG.
The teachers further demanded that they be paid their arrears which have accumulated since July last year and also be confirmed as pensionable and permanently employed teachers.
The Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Chairman Lawrence Otunga faulted the county government under the leadership of Gladys Wanga for putting in place the said directives without a proper laid out agreement with the teachers.
He lamented that a number of teachers are unable to either pay for their children's school fees or pay rent since their current accounts read negative.
Otunga noted some teachers had taken loans with local lending institutions and are unable to cope with the current economic situation due to the deduction on their salaries.
"It is sad and unfortunate that some of our teachers leave their children back at home for lack of School fees while heading to school to attend to other people's children," he said.
"We have given the county government seven days to revert the action they have taken of slashing our teachers' salaries or else they will down their tools," the national chairman said.
The chairman further told the county government to ensure the ECDE teachers are employed on a permanent and pensionable basis and avoid the current trend where some are employed on contract while some are on a permanent basis.
The alleged circular dated January 13 2023, claims that the SRC issued directives to the CoG to implement the new grading and salary structure which proposes a pay cut of between Ksh7,383 and Ksh10,803.
According to the proposed structures, ECDE teachers at the certificate level will earn between Ksh7,836 and Ksh11,467 for the job group between F and I.
For those with diploma certificates, their salaries will now be between Ksh11,467 and Ksh19,9094 down from Ksh22,270 and Ksh27,700 for job groups between H and J.
However, last week the SRC dismissed a circular circulating purporting to issue new salaries to ECDE teachers.
Speaking when she appeared before the Senate Education Committee on Thursday last week, SRC Chair Lynne Mengich termed the circular as misleading and erroneous.
Mengich, who appeared before the Senator Joe Nyutu-led committee together with Council of Governors Education Committee Chair Dr Erick Mutai, insisted they cannot review salaries downwards.
“We came to learn about the new salary structure in the media. It is not based on any fact and the SRC structure of 2021 is the one that prevails. No ECDE teacher will have their salary reduced to Ksh7,000,” Mengich assured.
Kericho governor Erick Mutai informed the committee that counties have employed approximately 43,874 ECDE teachers and dismissed the claims that counties would reduce the salaries of ECDE teachers.
“I do not know where this new structure came from. No governor will implement the fake letter,” he stated.
Mutai told the committee that governors take ECDE seriously and that approximately Ksh10 billion is spent annually in financing the program.
“Critically, the annual budget allocation for the Education function (which mostly combines with gender, youth, labour, ICT, social services) is an estimated Ksh10,828,076,256. The cost of implementing the scheme of service by far exceeds the total budget allocation for the Education Ministry by Ksh2,082,067,231.80, a 16 per cent variance,” Mutai said.
Committee chair Joe Nyutu said his team invited the two to clarify the matter as it had raised tension among ECDE teachers.
“There were reports that ECDE teachers were going to earn Ksh.7,000 and we thought this was unacceptable,” he said.
Nyutu added that his committee is also fighting to ensure all ECDE teachers are employed on a permanent and pensionable basis.
Nominated MP John Mbadi had taken Wanga head on concerning the deduction of ECDE teachers' salaries saying only Homa Bay has implemented the said directives by the SRC.
Mbadi accused Wanga of being the only governor in the country who has implemented the directives and not considering the welfare of the teachers, some hold degrees and even certificate papers.
"Our children who had been employed and used to earn around Ksh22,000 for the past two to three years and have already taken loans have now been reduced to beggars by the current regime in the name of saving funds which actually go to employing ghost workers," Mbadi said.
Mbadi claimed that counties such as Kisumu, Narok among others counties have already rejected the directives except for Homa Bay county government.
Wanga however told Mbadi to desist from politicising the ECDE teachers' issues saying the matter should not be politicised.
Wanga said her administration respects ECDE teachers and they will give a compressive report regarding their working conditions after holding a meeting with their representatives.
"We respect our ECDE teachers and soon we will issue a comprehensive report concerning their welfare after holding a consultative meeting with their leaders," Wanga said.
"We will see how best we can address the affairs of our teachers to the best ability as to the promises that we made to our people during campaigns, ECDE teachers are our number one champions and we really cherish and will not see them suffering," Wanga said.
