ECD teachers who were employed by the county government of Bungoma two years ago on contracts shall now have reason to smile as the devolved government plans to put them on permanent terms.
The county executive committee member – CEC for education Berryl Mutekhele revealed at an education stakeholders workshop held at Farm View Hotel in Busia that the county government is considering absorption of the teachers in permanent terms but in phases.
The CEC said that the county government was already working on a scheme of service for the teachers to start absorbing some of the ECD teachers to permanent and pensionable terms in phases due to the financial constraints that cannot allow the government to absorb all of them once.
“I would like to assure the our ECD teachers whom we employed on contracts that the ministry of education is working on the scheme of service to have some of them start being absorbed to permanent and pensionable terms in phases and we have already discussed it at cabinet level,” said Mutekhele as he spoke to www.westfm.co.ke on the sidelines of the two-day workshop.
To renew contracts
Mutekhele who was the chief guest at the workshop that brought together close to 200 delegates representing teachers from different sub-counties of Bungoma County organized by Ng’arisha Sacco said that the teachers should not fear about their fate as the contracts are expected to come to an end at the end of this year.
“I would further would like to dispel the fears among our ECD teachers who are not sure of what will happen after the contracts we offered them come to an end that we are going to renew contracts of all the ECD teachers we shall have employed by February next year including the 2000 teachers that we employed earlier,” she said.
Earlier on in the workshop teachers’ representatives through KNUT officials had asked the CEC to clear the air on the issue of the ECD teachers whom they said were not sure of their fate as their contracts drew closer to an end.
Bungoma to become ICT capital
At the same time Mutekhele revealed that the county government also has plans to make Bungoma a major ICT hub in the country through assistance of people from India.
She said that the governor’s recent tour in India saw the county government officials holding talks with experts from India who are expected to come in and assist in trainings and other inputs to ensure the county enhances its ICT programs at all levels.
“Recently when we went with the governor in India we negotiated on making Bungoma County an ICT capital in Kenya and we discussed with the people of Kenya who are ready to invest in Kenya whereby we are planning trainings and we intend to put up an ICT hub at Matili in what is called transfer of skills,” added Mutekhele.
She said that the people of India shall offer training in all aspects of ICT to the people of Bungoma County through the ICT hub to be established.
The CEC further promised that the county government is set to support and train teachers in the county on attaining basic knowledge in ICT under the same program of making the county an ICT capital.