Sossion warns TSC against firing ECDE teachers

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has warned their employer against sacking early childhood development education (ECDE) teachers already recruited into the service.

Secretary-general Wilson Sossion has instead told the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to regularise the employment of the tutors.

The commission’s chief executive Nancy Macharia had cautioned both public and private schools against hiring teachers who are not registered.

“Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers engaged in the service, whether in public or private educational institutions, without certificate of registration must immediately register with TSC,” said Ms Macharia.

But Mr Sossion said it was the obligation of the employer to expedite the registration of the instructors already recruited by county governments as ordered by the High Court last year.

Knut had moved to court in 2014 protesting the direct employment of nursery school teachers by county governments, arguing that such a move is reserved for the TSC.

Justice Edward Muriithi then issued an order compelling the commission to register the staff.

Mr Sossion told Nation.co.ke by phone that teachers whether trained or untrained must be registered by the TSC.

“Those untrained must be involved in capacity building to boost the number of ECDE staff,” he said.

“When we went to court, the teachers had already been employed by respective county governments and we only needed TSC to regularise such employments and this must be done without any conditions,” he added.

The court also ruled that county governments should handle employment of ECDE teachers and provide necessary infrastructure for education at this level.

There are currently over 110,000 ECDE teachers already employed by county governments, churches, NGOs and private entities.