Wasteful government lacks moral authority on teacher pay
What you need to know:
- When sitting at the mediation table, everything matters: looks, tones, dress, environment, sitting position, every word. Nothing goes unnoticed.
- The government recently considered a Sh60billion bailout to Kenya's national carrier, even after it made a record loss. So the money, or at least part of it, is there.
- High pay for MPs has tended to distort Kenya’s public sector remuneration, where the minimum wage for skilled labourers such as gardeners, messengers and watchmen is a mere Sh8,579 per month.
The country is holding its breath. The teachers are on strike. The government also ordered private schools to close, though this decision was quashed by a court temporary halting orders.
Accusations, arguments, opinions and blame game have been on the table. Some say the government is right and teachers are wrong; others say the government is bad and teachers are good.
The situation is critical, urgent and extremely delicate.
Sahil Shah reminded me last week that idle minds are the devil’s playground. If we don’t teach our children, Al-Shabaab will, for the forces of evil thrive in vacuum spaces, and we are creating a huge vacuum for our youth.
The government and the opposition have quickly thrown the teachers’ dilemma into the political arena, and in just two weeks education became a matter of Jubilee versus Cord.
Democracy, after all, is about taking political positions and holding on to them for as long as voters do not get tired.
Public discourse is often confusing and complicated, and calls for highly tactful negotiation and mediation skills. It is not restricted to white and black positions.
Sadly, education is a rather delicate topic and in this case the political debate has been oversimplified.
The problem calls for serious mediation, and mediation skills are acquired, nurtured and scientifically studied.
When sitting at the mediation table, everything matters: looks, tones, dress, environment, sitting position…every word has the power to heal or poison. Nothing goes unnoticed.
Before embarking on such a momentous task, a mediator will study every possible outcome, chart a path and look into its consequences. Every move has several possible sequels that are difficult to predict.
A good mediator is not a manipulator, but a facilitator. A good mediator does not decide on behalf of the parties, but simply aids and leads the parties, helping them to reach a solution of their own.
The case in question is complicated. As the President explained, it will cost the country close to KES 17 billion. This seems unsustainable.
Truly, Sh17billion is not pocket money, and the President is right; it was not budgeted for, and both budget and expenditure are passed and approved by Parliament.
So this is not just a government problem, it involves Parliament, the Judiciary and several constitutional commissions.
On the one hand, there is no money; on the other, teachers are not teaching. What do we do? Sit and wait and see who gets tired first, like it happened in 1993 when university lecturers laid down their tools for a year?
Both teachers and government are focusing only on the money issue, but the problem is not just financial. It is also social, of governance and ethics. It is a riddle of priorities, organisation and foresight.
Both sides have not put all the cards on the table. Both sides have shown half-hearted commitment. The teachers were reluctant to sign performance contracts, so they don’t seem focused on excellence after all.
The government, for its part, recently considered a Sh60billion bailout to Kenya's national carrier, even after it made a record loss. So the money, or at least part of it, is there.
According to Dorothy Otieno of Daily Nation, the worst shortage is in primary schools, where Kenya’s pupil-teacher ratio has been above the sub-Saharan average of 40:1. At 50:1, Kenya’s ratio is more than double the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) benchmark of 24:1.
Based on this benchmark, it is clear that there is a serious shortage of teachers at the public primary school level in Kenya.
But the salary analysis that compares Kenyan teachers with their peers in selected countries in Africa shows that the lowest-paid teacher in Kenya earns more than the highest-paid tutor in Uganda.
What makes the government lose the moral battle is the perceived high levels of greed and poor accountability in quite a number of offices.
In the Auditor-General’s report for the financial year 2013/2014, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had an unsupported expenditure of Sh128 million, while the Ministry of Education had an unsupported expenditure of Sh12.8 billion.
In fact, the total unsupported expenditure for government ministries, commissions, departments and funds amounted to Sh66.7 billion, a 50 per cent increase from the previous financial year’s Sh33.9 billion.
The Auditor said:
In absence of the records and documentation, the propriety of the expenditure of Kshs.66,782,697,987 could not be ascertained and therefore these public funds may not have been utilized lawfully and in an effective manner.
Audits of various ministries and several commissions, authorities and funds contain narratives of unexplained and unsupported expenditure, misused and unused funds, pending bills, irregular allowances, overpayments, irregular allocation of funds…and the list goes on.
Among the independent commissions, the TSC received the largest issue with Sh165billion, followed by the PSC with Sh22billion, the IEBC at Sh3.9billion and the EACC at Sh1.1billion.The rest fail to hit the Sh1billion bar.
The Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2013-2014 says that the TSC’s budget grew from Sh112billion to Sh154billion in the period 2011/12-2013/14, representing an increase of Sh42 billion.
This growth is attributed to harmonisation of teachers’ salaries with those of civil servants at a cost of Sh17 billion, recruitment of 25,000 new teachers at a cost of Sh12billion, conversion of 18,060 teachers previously employed on contract to permanent and pensionable, and promotion of teachers across all cadres.
The problem gets more complicated when we look at the legislators’ earnings. David Herbling of Business Daily explains that Kenyan legislators have been ranked the second-highest paid lawmakers in the world, after Nigeria. According to the Swedish Ambassador to Kenya,a Kenyan MP, for example, earns more than the Swedish Prime Minister.
A study shows the MPs’ basic pay, excluding allowances, is 76 times Kenya’s GDP per capita of Sh84,624.
The high pay has tended to distort Kenya’s public sector remuneration, where the minimum wage for skilled labourers such as gardeners, messengers and watchmen is a mere Sh8,579 per month. Just imagine, these people will need to go homeless and hungry for a whole year to buy a wheelbarrow in Bungoma.
The report also shows that four out of five of the highest paid MPs in the world are African, with the top five from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Indonesia and South Africa.
We have to work out the numbers, but more important than the numbers are the perceived levels of financial wastage, misplaced priorities, misused and unaccounted funds; and the exuberance of quite a number of public offices and officers.
The President will need to make some drastic decisions to lower public expenditure, or else the teachers will keep complaining, and after the teachers will come others…and then others…
Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected], Twitter: @lgfranceschi
