It has been over three months now since teachers employed by school boards of management, their counterparts from private schools, as well as other support staff last received their salaries.
Public schools depend on the government capitation to pay their staff, while private schools depend entirely on school fees to run the schools. With the closure of learning institutions due to the outbreak of covid 19, these schools have not been able to pay their staff.
This situation has caused great suffering to this section of Kenyans. Some of them have reported to doing menial jobs to meet their needs, while some have gone to the extent of committing suicide due to overwhelming pressure from the society. Instances of some being locked out of their rental houses has been seen, since they have not been able to pay rent for several months.
Their is however some good news for these teachers. While chairing the 5th session of the National and County Governments Coordinating Summit at State house, the president ordered Treasury CS Ukur Yatani and his Education counterpart George Magoha to work out on the technical modalities to ensure that school staff are paid immediately.
This will ensure that the BOM teachers are cushioned from the ripple effects of covid 19.The president however did not talk about teachers employed by private schools. Information at our disposal is that the treasury has already released second and third term capitation to the ministry for disbursement to schools.
