The country’s Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers’ union, the Kenya Union of Pre-Primary Education Teachers (KUNOPPET), has urged the country’s teacher employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), and the Ministry of Education to always involve all Education stakeholders whenever there is any public policy formulation affecting the sector.
The union’s Secretary General Samuel Opiyo in a recent interview with Education News highlighted various milestones the union has achieved in its quest to fight for fair labour practices for ECDE teachers in the country and decried that there is a major change of policy where the government has unilaterally reviewed the curriculum for teacher trainees by collapsing the Diploma in ECDE teacher training and the Diploma in Primary Teacher training into an amorphous Diploma in teacher training.
He observed that the changes in the policy implied that teachers graduating from teacher training colleges will be deployed to either ECDE or Primary but the TSC staffing norms currently in force do not define this change of policy.
At the same time, Opiyo also pointed out the failure to repeal the ECDE Act 2021 as per the recommendations contained in the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform ((PWPER) noting that the move is unacceptable since revamping the Act has given County governments more powers in managing ECDE teachers.
“It is our concern also that whereas the Presidential Working Party report recommended a review of some legislations affecting the implementation thereof, legislation such as the Early Childhood Education Act 2021 which was to be repealed has otherwise been fortified to give the county governments sweeping powers in ECDE teacher management role in clear contravention of the Taskforce recommendations,” he said.
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According to Opiyo, the union has achieved a lot recently, pointing out the latest development where KUNOPPET wrote a letter dated September 6, 2024, to the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury John Mbadi seeking a policy change to see a properly managed payroll system which will ensure that the Controller of Budget only approves resources meant for gross salaries of public officers including ECDE teachers in a manner which will ensure that all third party deductions are promptly remitted.
“This will tremendously curb the monster of pending bills. The Cabinet Secretary on November 23, 2024, gazetted a Task Force to handle the issues raised by KUNOPPET and it is expected that from January 2025, the issue of non-remittance of third-party deductions will be a relic of the past,” he added.
By Roy Hezron.
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