Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha has said Board of management (BOM) teachers will be paid once the ministry verifies the actual number of those to be paid.
Prof. Magoha said the funds to pay the BOM teachers was available and has not been taken back as was being claimed.
Speaking in Uasin Gishu Friday while inspecting Covid-19 preparedness of Eldoret Polytechnic, Rift Valley Technical Training Institute and Moiben Teacher Training College to reopen in September, the CS said the ministry only took a step back to confirm and reaffirm the number of BOM teachers to be paid.
There was discordance in the list of teachers to be paid and as a ministry, we decided to hold the money for verification to be done so that government funds are not fraudulently paid to undeserving people, he said, adding, “we decided to go back to the field to confirm the true numbers of BOM teachers, we shall crosscheck thoroughly to ensure only teachers who are alive and teaching are paid.”
All the noise you hear about the money released to pay BOM teachers after being directed by President Uhuru Kenyatta is just ‘hot air,’ the money has not been returned and it will not be long before the deserving teachers are paid after verification.
“Government money must only be used for the purpose it was meant,” reiterated the CS.
He also said it was most regrettable that the initiative by the Ministry of Education to introduce community teaching to ensure students were engaged as they remain at home due to the Covid-19 infection is being trivialized.
He said the community teaching initiative was a noble idea meant for children to be taught within their locality by teachers who live among them and it was absurd for some teachers to ask for PPEs’, “Why do you need PPEs ?” he posed.
He said instead of teachers staying at home and earning a salary, it was thought wise that they teach life skills to students within their locality.
By Kiptanui Cherono
