- The Senators charged that the examinations agency should explain the deployments and state the steps it is taking to have the teachers paid promptly.
- Senator Olekina reckoned that a penalty should be imposed on Knec for delayed payments.
Image: FILE
The management of the Kenya National Examinations Council led by CEO David Njengere will face senators over nonpayment of teachers who supervised, invigilated and marked the 2022 national exams.
The Senate’s Education committee is set to grill Njengere and his team following revelations and complaints that the agency is yet to pay the tutors who oversaw the 2022 KCSE and KCPE exams.
This even as the lawmakers proposed the establishment of a special kitty to pay the teachers who attend to students during the exams.
“We need to be a bit creative and say that part of the money paid by candidates in order to take examinations should be earmarked or budgeted so that it is used to pay teachers,” Narok Senator Ledama Olekina said.
Teachers, through their unions, have lamented that more than 50,000 who supervised, invigilated and marked the exams have not been paid.
The Senators charged that the examinations agency should explain the deployments and state the steps it is taking to have the teachers paid promptly.
“KNEC should explain why it has not paid the teachers despite concluding the exercise months ago,” nominated Senator Esther Okenyuri said.
Okenyuri, who triggered the debate on the floor, said that failure to pay the tutors shows a lack of gratitude.
Narok Senator Ledama Olekina reckoned that a penalty should be imposed on Knec for delayed payments.
“There is a saying that goes; ‘what is good for the goose, is good for the gander.’ That situation should be the same when it comes to the issue of paying teachers who take their time to go through papers and mark them," Olekina said.
“I would like us to put ourselves in the shoes of those teachers. When we sit in this House and our sitting allowance is delayed, all of us will complain and we will not do anything."
Nominated Senator Beatrice Ogola said that it was unfortunate that the results are already celebrated nationally yet the teachers who invigilated, supervised and marked the exams are not yet paid.
She said that the role teachers play in the invigilation and marking of exams is critical for the progression of the students from one level to another, yet KNEC continues to delay their allowances.
“Failure to pay these invigilators shows lack of gratitude to the teachers through the process of marking.
“Teachers make a lot of sacrifices when they go for the marking of these exams. Once this work is done and the results are out, it is only important and human that the teachers are paid on time. It looks like the education fraternity has a lot of problems,” Ogola said.
She said that teachers who teach the students of the new curriculum have not been adequately prepared.
“I support that teachers who have done their work as invigilators must be paid in time because the output is already there,” Ogola said.