Laikipia To Absorb Over 800 ECDE Teachers Into Payroll, Pay Sh61,000 To Teachers With Degrees.
At least 803 Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers in Laikipia County will now be paid by the county government.
This comes after the County Public Service Board (CPSB) announced that it would begin implementing a service scheme and prepare new teacher salaries and allowances on July 1.
The teachers, who have been receiving monthly stipends of Sh10,000, have been lobbying for the implementation of the service scheme, which was drafted in January 2018.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nyeri ordered the county government to hire the tutors on permanent and pensionable terms in February of last year, with their employment backdated to 2016.
The court also ordered that the teachers be refunded the difference between their current Sh10,000 monthly stipend and their new salary, which will be determined by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
The 428 tutors had sued the county government through the Kenya Union of Pre Primary Education Teachers (KUNOPPET) for the “unfair labor practice of subjecting them to unstructured contract service.”
They accused Governor Ndiritu Muriithi and his predecessor, Joshua Irungu, of underpaying them and subjecting them to perpetual economic hardship.
Governor Muriithi has promised to improve payment terms for teachers.
He said that beginning July 1 this year, the County Public Service Board will conduct suitability interviews on current teachers and enroll them on permanent and pensionable terms.
The governor revealed that his administration would pay teachers with degrees Sh61,000 per month, diplomas Sh41,000, and certificates Sh36,000 per month.
He stated that his government made the decision after consulting with the SRC.
“We have over the years wished to have our ECDE teachers earn a decent salary just like other public officers. Due to hard work and the willingness by residents of Laikipia to pay taxes, we have been able to get enough resources to include them in the payroll,” Mr Muriithi said.
Teachers will also be given a housing allowance.
“As a government, we do things procedurally and that is why we engaged all the ECDE teachers in the county to explain to them their new terms of employment,” the county boss added.
Despite reducing fees for SMEs from Sh2,500 to Sh1,000 between July 2021 and March this year, the Laikipia County Revenue Board collected Sh667.8 million between July 2021 and March this year.
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The county collected Sh575.8 million, a 16 percent increase over the previous year.
To help implement the new service scheme, the county government may need to allocate more resources in the fiscal year 2022/23, which begins on July 1, 2022.
Laikipia To Absorb Over 800 ECDE Teachers Into Payroll, Pay Sh61,000 To Teachers With Degrees
