Governors are asking for grants of up to Ksh.4.3 billion per year from the National Treasury to pay Early Childhood and Development Education (ECDE) teachers.
Presently, pre-primary teachers are employed and salaried under different terms of service with some receiving a stipend as low as Ksh.7,500 instead of a salary.
The salary of an ECDE teacher is highly determined by the county’s Early Childhood and Development Education remuneration formula, therefore, not standardized.
The Senate is investigating reports that most counties pay their pre-primary school teachers below the gazetted government minimum wage which is against the Early Childhood Education Act, 2021, which requires all county public service boards to remunerate the ECDE teachers according to the Scheme of service.
The Regulation of Wages Order 2018, prescribes the basic minimum of Ksh.13,500 housing allowance for pre-primary teachers in Nairobi and other cities.
Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education teachers (KENOPPET) National Chairman Lawrence Otunga said the pay discrepancy among ECDE teachers needs to be addressed urgently seeing some counties have snubbed employing teachers on permanent terms.
“Most governors have failed to give priority to the implementation of the Act,” said the union chair.
County chiefs say the provision of yearly grants of Ksh2,292 per learner will enable them to effectively fulfill the terms agreed in the scheme of service to the ECDE teachers.
“There are 1,916,690 learners in ECDE centres currently, which translates to an annual grant of Ksh4.39 billion,” Mutahi Kahiga, Nyeri governor and chairman of the Council of Governors’ Education Committee told the Senate.
Currently, the best paying counties are Mandera, Garissa, Embu, Turkana, Kajiado, Kilifi, Kwale, Kiambu, Kisumu, Nairobi and Bungoma while the bottom 10 counties that pay poorly are Kericho, Baringo, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Makueni, Kirinyaga, Nandi, Kitui, Laikipia and Uasin Gishu.
