Governors brace for fight with the State over management of ECDE centres
From left: Governors Mutahi Kahiga (Nyeri), Erick Mutai (Kericho) and James Orengo (Siaya) address journalists on the recommendations of the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms and their implications for counties at the Council of Governors offices in Nairobi on Wednesday, January 10.
What you need to know:
- County bosses are planning to boycott the inter-governmental coordination meeting in protest at proposals to transfer the management of ECDE centres to the national government.
Governors will boycott the Inter-Governmental Relations Technical Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday next week, to discuss the implementation of recommendations made by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) on how best to manage the sector.
This move, the governors said, is in protest against proposals to have the management of over 30,400 early childhood development and education (ECDE) centres, which employ 54,000 teachers and have an enrolment of some 2.3 million children, under the national government.
Would not allow
Barely a fortnight ago, Council of Governors (CoG) Chairperson Anne Waiguru had warned that counties would not allow the plan to materialise on grounds that the Constitution has mandated the devolved units to manage the pre-primary schools.
The county bosses are demanding further consultations to ensure their concerns are addressed. They accused the national government of rolling back on the gains made by devolution. They were addressing journalists at the CoG office in Nairobi yesterday after a consultative meeting between members of the Education and Legal, Constitutional Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations committees, yesterday morning.
Discuss the implications
The governors met to discuss the implications of PWPER, particularly with regards to the recommendations the task force made on how ECDE centres should be run.
“The CoG categorically rejects the recommendations in their entirety to the extent that they undermine the basic structure and framework of the Constitution. The CoG hereby withdraws its participation from any process seeking to legislate the recommendations in the report,” Kericho Governor and CoG Education Committee chairperson Eric Mutai said.
As far as they were concerned, the governors maintained, the management of ECDEs remained unchanged and would continue to be managed by county governments.
“County governments will continue to manage both the institutions and human resources for the constitutionally assigned functions in education,” Dr Mutai said.
Presidential Working Party on Education Reform Chairperson Prof Raphael Munavu addressing media during public hearings on education reforms held at the University of Nairobi (UoN) Taifa Hall on November 11, 2022.
Delineated functions
Other recommendations made in the PWPER report include the establishment of a comprehensive school system, where all levels of learning are headed by one head of institution, something that the governors claimed disregards the delineated functions in the Constitution.
“We note that there is no accountability framework provided for the proposed head of institutions to the counties regarding the management of the pre-primary schools. The governors also faulted the recommendation that the Ministry of Education, Teachers Service Commission and the CoG to develop an intergovernmental agreement for hiring and remuneration of pre-primary teachers.”
“Hiring of pre-primary teachers is a preserve of the county governments as reiterated in a judgment of the High Court in 2016 that clarified the powers of county governments in hiring pre-primary teachers,” Dr Mutai said.
Development partners
The county bosses also rejected the proposal to amend the Basic Education Act to have county commissioners chair County Education Boards as well as to develop a framework for the facilitation of development partners who support education.
“A convening of any devolved sector forum will strictly be done between the two levels of government and no other entity. The Committee strongly protests against all recent attempts to claw back on devolution in the education sector,” Dr Mutai said.
