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Pre-Primary teachers have insisted that the management of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) institutions should be under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and not county governments.

The Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Teachers (KUNOPPET), led by national chairman Lawrence Otunga yesterday said that ECDE institutions should be allowed to operate in line with Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) recommendation that pre-primary, primary and junior secondary education be managed as one.

“We support the report by the PWPER. The teachers’ voices must count. The personal interests of some governors should not conflict with the interests of the public,” said Otunga in a press conference held in Nairobi.

Otunga stated that the management of ECDE in the counties is politicised adding that most governors and other senior county officials are using that opportunity to reward their voters, friends and relatives, by employing them as teachers yet some of these beneficiaries are unqualified and not registered by the TSC as required by law.

“Most county governments have subjected teachers into unfair labour practices and are paying teachers poor salaries, below the gazetted minimum wage. The poor salaries are in most occasions delayed intentionally to a period of not less than six months,” he regretted.

Not competitive

The pre-primary teachers also said employment of teachers in most counties is not being done competitively and on merit and that is why a teacher who graduated in 2023 is being employed while the one who graduated in 2007 is still jobless.

“The few who successfully got employment through a genuine process are always being reminded that it was a favour and most of them are not even allowed to join their union, KUNOPPET. Employment of teachers in most counties is being done secretly and some teachers are forced to pay close to Sh300,000 or more to be employed,” said Otunga.

The union has also condemned that most ECDE teachers are retiring without being employed and in some instances, children they taught are being employed ahead of them.

Similarly, he said most Governors have diverted money meant for hiring of ECDE teachers into bursaries and other “important projects” and have deliberately refused to allocate money for implementation of the ECDE Scheme of Service.

“Teachers suffering in counties like West Pokot, Nandi, Murang’a, Vihiga, Machakos, Meru, Bomet, among others. Only a few counties like Kericho, Embu, Taita Taveta, Turkana, Uasin Gishu, Makueni, Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Kisumu and a few others have tried to pay decent salaries,” he said.

They declared their disappointment over actions of some Governors and affirmed their full support for the working party report.

“We are urging Members of the National Assembly to adopt this report without a change of even a comma. We are soon going to launch a nationwide exercise to compel the County Governments to release ECDE teachers to the TSC. We are Tired.

County Governments should only remain with infrastructural developments,” the teachers insisted.

Last week, the Council of Governors (CoG) said it has rejected the recommendation to establish a comprehensive school system led by one head of institution.

COG Education Committee Chairperson, Dr Eric Mutai said they do not agree with this PWPER recommendation since it undermines the basic structure and framework of the Constitution.

Similarly, he said the Council has since withdrawn its participation from any process that seeks to legislate the recommendations contained in the report.

This includes the proposed meeting called by the Inter- Governmental Relations Technical Committee set for January 16.

“The County Governments will continue to manage both the institutions and human resources for the constitutionally assigned functions of education. A convening of any devolved sector forum will strictly be done between the two levels of Government and no other entity,” said Mutai.

No financial resources

He said counties have made tremendous efforts towards transforming the devolved education functions assigned to them by the Constitution.

Currently, counties are managing at least 30,400 pre-primary schools, have employed over 54,000 teachers and over 2.3 million children are enrolled across the country.

He said counties cumulatively allocate over Sh8 billion every year towards education, a situation Governors stated was unheard of before devolution, where pre-primary education was mainly supported by communities.

“Since the function was devolved before costing, it is important to note that counties have achieved all this with no specific financial resource having been devolved to support the pre-primary education function,” he explained.