Reducing ECDE Teachers Salary Will Kill Teaching Profession, KUPPET Warns SRC
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) in Kenya has been warned not to make the profession of Early Childhood Education (ECDE) teaching unattractive by interfering with teachers’ salaries.
Samuel Opiyo, the Secretary General of the Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Teachers, has expressed concerns that the plan to reduce the salaries of ECDE teachers will lead to a high number of educators quitting the profession.
He believes that this will eventually harm the foundation of basic education for children and kill the teaching profession.
The union is taking legal action to prevent the SRC from implementing the proposed salary structure, which is set to take effect at the end of this month.
Opiyo has stated that the teachers have made significant gains in their fight for fair compensation, and the SRC’s proposal to reduce their salaries is an outrageous attempt to undermine their efforts.
Opiyo has agreed to work with the Laikipia County government to address complaints by area ECDE teachers who have been unable to access their payslips.
The teachers claim that the County, which is their employer, has not yet provided them with personal identification numbers (PIN) to access their payslips.
They believe that by being able to access their payslips, they can better understand why their money was deducted from their salaries.
The union county branch chairman, John Kariuki, has expressed concerns that five teachers have yet to receive their letters of employment from the County government.
This is despite the fact that the union won an employment case against the devolved unit in 2016 and the court ordered the County to provide the teachers with letters of employment.
In response, Opiyo has threatened to file contempt of court proceedings if the County government does not comply with the court’s order.
The efforts to reduce the salaries of ECDE teachers in Kenya are causing significant concerns among educators and their union representatives.
They believe that reducing teachers’ salaries will harm the basic education of children and lead to the decline of the teaching profession.
The union is taking legal action to prevent the implementation of the proposed salary structure and to address the complaints of teachers who are unable to access their payslips.
Reducing ECDE Teachers Salary Will Kill Teaching Profession, KUPPET Warns SRC
