All 42,700 nursery school teachers will receive their pay rise, the Senate Committee on Education said in its report.
County governments have been given 60 days to heed the call.
According to the Senate report, only 8 counties have fully implemented established plan of service for ECDE teachers, 16 counties have partially began while 23 counties have not initiated any plans at all
“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,” said Alice Milgo, who chairs the committee.
The chair of the committee Alice Milgo said out of the 42,700 teachers employed by county governments, 13,502 are permanently employed while 28,300 are on contract.
The Senate has been 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 committee said that the government employs ECDE teachers on poor terms with some earning as low as Ksh.7, 000shillings with the highest-earning Ksh.40 000 shillings
“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 said.
The committee has asked the county government to provide a budget for the teachers and effect salary increment within 60 days.
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.
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.
