Education Ministry seeks MPs’ support to save hardship allowances for teachers

The Ministry of Education is seeking the support of Members of Parliament to standardize hardship areas across the country in order to safeguard the allowances of deserving government employees.

Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos acknowledged that the current method for determining who qualifies for the additional monthly pay is unfair, but the government is committed to making improvements.

While speaking at Ngenia Comprehensive School in Laikipia County during the unveiling of a bus funded by the NG-CDF, Migos reassured teachers that his ministry would ensure they retain their rightful benefits.

This statement comes in light of reports that the government plans to remove 129 sub-counties from the hardship area classification, which could result in civil servants losing Ksh6 billion in allowances.

Teachers in hardship areas, represented by their welfare association, have filed a lawsuit to prevent the implementation of recommendations from the 2019 Inter-Agency Technical Committee Report on Hardship Area Reclassification. They criticized the report for lacking public consultation and scientific validation.

Members of Parliament from hardship areas have also voiced their support for the teachers, pledging to oppose the report’s implementation.

Laikipia North MP Sarah Korere has vowed to prevent her constituency from being reclassified as a non-hardship area and has urged the education ministry to address other ongoing issues, such as the registration of students in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

Teachers have raised concerns about failures in the NEMIS online portal, with thousands of students from Grades Three to Nine still unregistered as required by the Competency-Based Education framework. This registration process was expected to be completed last week.

CS Migos assured that a new system would be implemented soon to resolve the registration issues faced by education managers nationwide.

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