Salaries and Remuneration Commission chair Lyn Mengich and her Council of Governors Education Committee counterpart Eric Mutai said the supposed salary structure was misleading and erroneous.

“We came to learn about the new salary structure on 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 Sh7,000,” Mengich assured.

Mutai, who is also the Kericho governor affirmed that the only structure they have is one that was issued in 2021.

“I do not know where this new structure came from. No governor will implement the fake letter,” he said.

He said governors take ECDE teachers seriously and honour what they do in the counties.

“We cannot review salaries of ECDE teachers downwards. It has never happened anywhere in the world and Kenya will not be the first to do it,” he said.

Mengich and Mutai had appeared before the Senate Education Committee to shed light on the structure that had elicited a storm among education stakeholders.

Approximately 43,874 ECDE teachers are currently employed by county governments.

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 Sh7,000 and we thought this was unacceptable,” he said.

Nyutu said his committee is also fighting to ensure all ECDE teachers are employed on a permanent and pensionable basis.

The report, which was widely circulated on social media, said the commission had recommended to CoG a new grading and salary structure targeting teachers employed by county governments.

In a circular purportedly issued by the SRC dated January 13, 2023, the commission directed county governments to implement the new grading and salary structures which proposes a pay cut of between Sh7,383 and Sh10,803.

According to the structure, an ECD teacher at the certificate level would have earned between Sh7,836 and Sh11,467 for job groups between F and L.

This would have been a massive drop from their current salary of between Sh16,890 and Sh20,800 for the same job groups.

Kenya County Government Workers Union had warned of a strike if the purported structure would have been implemented.

Internationally, ILO’s Convention 95 on Protection of Wages of 1949, the Employment Act Part IV on Protection of Wages and the 2010 Constitution Article 41 state that no one can arbitrarily reduce an employee’s wage without his/her consent.

On May 1, 2022, there was an increment of 12 per cent in the minimum wage in Kenya which rose to Sh15, 201 pay for workers in cities and about half of this figure for general workers in rural areas.

This minimum wage was deemed to affect general workers such as domestic workers, workers in the agriculture sectors, security guards, and construction workers among others who undertake manual labour in the course of their daily work.

Under Kenyan laws, when a firm is financially challenged, an employee’s pay cannot be reduced without consent or discussions between the employee and the employer.

This was witnessed in the country at the height of Covid-19 and in almost all countries of the world. 

An employment contract cannot be changed by one party without the consent of the other.

In Kenya, the law provides that if an employee is aggrieved by salary deductions, they can file a complaint with the Ministry of Labour or sue in a court of law within three years after the pay cut.

In case one is to oppose or resist a salary reduction, then an employer has the option of terminating the contract of employment by giving them their contractual notice and then offering a new contract on a reduced salary.

Mengich said the estimated annual expenditure in the full implementation of the scheme of service for ECDE teachers would be 12,910,143,487.

“Critically, the annual budget allocation for the Education function (which mostly combines with gender, youth, labour, ICT, and social services) is an estimated Sh10, 828,076,256. The cost of implementing the scheme of service by far exceeds the total budget allocation for the Education Ministry by Sh2,082, 067,231.80, a 16 per cent variance,” she added.

The Kisumu county government has employed 665 early childhood development education (ECDE) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.

Governor Anyang Nyong’o said the teachers drawn from the seven sub-counties have been serving on a contract basis.

Nyong’o presided over the issuance of permanent and pensionable service letters to the teachers at the County Public Service Board office on Friday.

He lauded the teachers for working diligently to give academic nourishment to the children.

“As a reward for the good job they have done to our children, my Cabinet has decided to put all of them on permanent and pensionable terms,” Nyong’o said.

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“We have done this to motivate and enable the teachers to plan well as they realise their career development. You will no longer be worried about the renewal of your contracts.”

The teachers are now creditworthy and access loans for personal development.

Nyong’o said the employment has been done in strict observance of labour laws and all relevant legal statutes.

This, he said, was also in line with the resolutions of the Council of Governors (COG) in the ECDE sector.

Nyong’o said Kisumu joins Busia, Nyandarua, Nakuru and Bungoma counties that have their ECD teachers engaged on permanent and pensionable terms.

He pointed out that the management of Pre-primary Education in Kenya is placed under the county government as outlined in the Fourth Schedule of the constitution of Kenya 2010.

The Early Childhood Education Act 2021 in its entirety further outlines the involvement of the County Governments in terms of health and rights to Early Childhood Education.

In Kisumu County, there are 684 ECD centres of which 627 are anchored in Primary Schools and 57 are stand-alone public ECD centres.

The public ECD centres have a total enrolment of 52,818 children of whom 26,003 are girls and 26,815 are boys.

Nyong’o said his government has undertaken various measures to develop the sector and to ensure the foundational education is deeply entrenched.

He said the county has maintained support for the school feeding program by supplying rice and oil to all the ECD centres to complement the efforts of parents.

The intervention is aimed at improving their learning performance in schools through increased enrolment, retention, completion rate and 100 percent transition.

They also invested in the construction of standard classrooms with teachers’ rooms and toilets for the ECD children to learn in a good environment.

He pointed out that 60 percent of all schools have ECDE classes built by the County Government and very soon all the Centres will have classrooms constructed.

Nyong’o said the county has given priority to good sanitation to young learners to keep off diseases that crop in due to non-observance of hygiene.

He said the county’s health department undertakes vaccination against diseases, deworming and provision of vitamin A supplements half-yearly in all the ECD Centres.

The county also provides capitation to young learners to ensure quality education is achieved.

“It is also our responsibility to ensure quality education is accessible to our children through the distribution of stationery,” Nyong’o said.

He stated that they have supplied textbooks, exercise books, pencils, sharpeners and erasers to children in schools.

The county, he said, has distributed chairs and tables to ECD centres countywide to ensure children learn in a conducive environment.

He said the workforce is coordinated by officers at the county, sub-county and ward levels.

He outlined that his administration was committed to making Early Childhood education vibrant, saying it was the strongest foundation for education in society.

“Because of the great job the ECDE teachers were doing, I doubled their salaries, making them some of the best-paid teachers across the country,” he said.

Nyong’o urged teachers to exercise professionalism and decorum while discharging their duties of nurturing the young Kenyans.

“You will be under probation for six months and during this period your immediate supervisor will assess your suitability to continue serving, advise for extension of probation or termination of the contract,” he said.

He told the teachers to prove that his cabinet and the Public Service Board did not make a mistake by giving them permanent and pensionable terms.

“As role models in society, the children under your care depend on you for cognitive, social and spiritual development. Facilitate this to make Kisumu comparable to none,” Nyong’o said.

ECDE teachers in various counties have the biggest relief in their profession since governors have started to honor the agreement to see them get increased perks under the new schemes of service, CBC.

The new scheme of service was developed by the Council of Governors (CoG) and will be applied to pay ECDE teachers in all counties and to effect their promotions.

This followed the 60-day ultimatum given to the Governors to harmonize the salaries of ECDE teachers with other county employees by the Senate.

The 47 county governments were given till end of June to increase the salaries of 42,700 ECDE teachers working for their counties by the senate.

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As per the Senate report tabled by the senate committee on education, 23 counties had not initiated any process to implement the existing scheme of service for ECDE teachers by last month.

However, the Council of Governors sneaked a new scheme of service which it asked counties to honor by July 2022.

Initially there was an’ existing scheme of service courtesy of Salaries and Renumeration Commission (SRC) after a job evaluation that was jointly carried by SRC, Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Council of Governors as well as Ministry of Education officials but governors have swept it under the carpet.

The latest county to honor the agreement is Busia County which has moved a total of 533 ECDE teachers who were on contract to permanent and pensionable terms.

Starting this month ECDE teachers will start to enjoy good pay after an agreement by Council of Governors (CoG).

The Senate has asked the 47 county governments to increase the salaries of 42,700 nursery school teachers within 60 days.

In a report to the House, the Education committee says 23 counties have not initiated any process to implement an existing scheme of service for early childhood development education teachers (ECDE).

The committee said only eight counties have fully implemented the scheme of service while 16 have partially done so.

“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.

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Ms Milgo said out of the 42,700 teachers employed by county governments, 13,502 are permanently employed while 28,300 are on contract.

Another 4,000 were remunerated by parent teachers’ associations.

Some counties pay as low as Sh7,000, with the highest paying county paying Sh40,000. Most counties employ ECDE teachers on contract as opposed to permanent and pensionable terms.

The committee compiled the report following a petition by Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua regarding the plight of ECDE teachers and the poor status of ECD classrooms.

The committee said its interaction with stakeholders revealed that most counties pay ECDE teachers below government minimum wage.

“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,” Ms Milgo said.

She said counties had employed teachers on poor terms yet there is an approved scheme of service and remuneration structure for ECDE teachers.

“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 said.

The committee has also recommended that the Council of Governance (CoG) review the job description for the ECDE teachers and submit it to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) for review within 100 days.

The committee has further asked the CoG to establish a career progression for the ECDE teachers within 90 days of tabling the report.

“The committee recommends that county governments and their county assemblies should enact legislation to increase the budget for the ECDE to at least 10 percent of county revenue. This will turn around education at the county level,” Ms Milgo said.

The committee also wants Parliament to fast track the passage of the County Governments Grants Bill, 2021 so that county governments ring-fence grants for the ECD.

Governors are asking for grants of up to Sh4.3 billion annually from the exchequer to address teacher remuneration challenges in pre-primary schools.

Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers are currently employed and remunerated under different terms of service, with some receiving a stipend instead of a salary.

The county chiefs say the provision of annual capital grants of Sh2,292 per learner will enable them effectively engage teachers on the terms prescribed in the scheme of service.

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“There are 1,916,690 learners in ECDE centres currently, which translates to an annual grant of Sh4.39 billion,” Nyeri governor Mutahi Kahiga who chairs the Council of Governors’ (CoG) education committee told the Senate.

The Senate is investigating reports that most counties pay their pre-primary school teachers below the gazetted government minimum wage.

The Regulation of Wages Order 2018 prescribes the basic minimum monthly wages inclusive of housing allowance for Nairobi and other cities at Sh13,572.

Former municipalities and town councils are expected to pay ECDE teachers a minimum monthly wage of Sh12,522 and Sh7,240 for all other locations.

Data from the CoG shows 42,457 ECDE teachers have been employed by county governments, 13,502 of who are on permanent and pensionable terms, while 28,955 are on three-year contracts.

Counties recruit ECDE teachers through the County Public Service Boards (CPSB) in line with the ECDE Teachers’ Scheme of Service launched in 2018.

Budgetary constraints have however made it difficult for the devolved units to pay the teachers efficiently amid the rising cost of living in an economy reeling from Covid pandemic induced shocks.

The devolved units are grappling with a Sh2.08 billion annual budget gap for the full implementation of the scheme of service for ECDE teachers.

Governors note the proposed grant will have nine key budget lines including learning resources, teacher guides, teaching and learning aids, stationery and staff maintenance.

Busia governor Sospeter Ojaamong has promised ECDE teachers that he will hike their salaries. The governor was addressing mourners during a burial ceremony of a retired ECDE teacher at Teso south sub county. The governor stressed that ECDE teachers deserve a salary increment since the role they play in moulding learners is crucial.

“My government will increase their salaries to match other teachers. I want ECDE teachers to own cars like other teachers considering that they are doing a good job at the grassroots,” said Ojaamong.

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The governor noted that his government has at least two county government employed ECDE teachers in each public ECDE Centre and will ensure that each public primary school has an ECDE classroom in the year 2021/ 2022 financial year.

Since 2020, Busia county government has employed more than 500 ECDE teachers and is planning to confirm the ECDE teachers who are currently on contract.

The teachers who were employed permanently had been offered a two-year contract in 2017, which ended in December 2019, creating opportunities for another set to be employee on contract.

The county boss stated that the aim of improving status of ECDE in his county is to stabilize early learning and to set a strong base for children’s education.

Ojaamong in 2019 launched the distribution of ECDE instructional material across the county, announcing that his governance was dedicated to employ an adequate number of ECDE educators.

This comes at a time when the council of governors is lobbying for employment of ECDE teachers on permanent and pensionable terms by the national government.