A union of ECDE teachers has opposed direct employment by the county governments.
It wants its members transferred to the Teachers Service Commission.
The Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Teachers (Kunoppet) yesterday said the Constitution bars the county public service boards from hiring people who should be employed by the TSC.
National secretary-general Samuel Opiyo accused the counties of poorly managing pre-primary education. The devolved units have a lot of resources meant for ECDE centres but they can’t handle teachers, he said.
“It is our view that ECDE teachers can best be handled by the TSC. We have moved across the country where we have members. They all hold the view that they can best be handled by the TSC,” Opiyo said in Nyahururu town. Hew held a meeting with ECDE teachers from Laikipia county.
“If the county governments cannot build classrooms, buy teaching materials and build toilets for these young children with all the resources allocated to them, what else do they do with the money allocated to them?”
He said the counties have been hiring ECDE coordinators to supervise pre-primary education after failing to hire teachers.
Laikipia branch Kunoppet executive secretary Salome Maina protested that the counties were hiring ECDE teachers on a one-year contract and preventing them from joining trade unions.
“The ECD teachers are yet to be employed by the county government and what they get is a token of Sh10,000 a month,” she said, adding that the teachers were better off when parents were contributing their pay.
She said most ECDE centres last got learning materials in 2014 — a packet of chalk and ballpoint pens.
Peterson Kibichi, an ECDE teacher, said the counties have refused to offer employment on a permanent basis. He claimed ECDE funds are used to pay ghost workers.
They accused county ECDE coordinators of harassment whenever they raise their grievances.
