The Ministry of Education is seeking support from Members of Parliament in harmonizing hardship areas in the country to protect deserving government employees from losing their allowances.
Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos admitted that current system in determining who receives the extra monthly pay is discriminatory but the government is now determined to have it streamlined.
Speaking at Ngenia Comprehensive School in Laikipia County during presentation of a bus purchased through NG-CDF Fund, Migos assured teachers that his ministry would protect them from losing their deserved benefits.
The CS spoke amid reports that the government was set to implement a plan that will see removal of some 129 sub-counties from category of hardship areas where civil servants will end up losing Ksh6 billion in allowances.
Teachers working in hardship areas through their welfare association have gone to court seeking to stop the implementation of the recommendation of the 2019-Inter Agency Technical Committee Report on Hardship Area Reclassification. The teachers have faulted the report citing lack of public consultation and scientific validation.
Members of Parliament in hardship areas have also come to the defence of the teachers saying they would oppose the implementation of this report.
Laikipia North MP Sarah Korere while vowing that she would not allow her constituency to be declassified as hardship area has also called om the education ministry to address other prevailing challenges in the education ministry among them registration of learners to the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
Teachers have complained of a system failure in the NEMIS online portal where thousands of learners from Grade Three to Nine are yet to be registered as required under the Competent Based Education. The exercise was expected to be completed last week
CS Migos promised that a new system would be installed soon to resolve the registration hitch being experienced by education managers from across the country.
