A grandmother from Bomet County will now be able to smile all the way to the bank thanks to her new job after staying out of formal employment for 30 years.
In a sit-down with Daily Nation on Wednesday, July 22, Ruth Chelule, 59, disclosed that she was elated after she bagged an Early Childhood Education Development (ECED) teaching job.
The grandmother of 12 was among 1,200 ECED teachers, including her two daughters, who were also unveilled as the county's new ECED teachers.
"I strongly consider it as a service to the society. I started teaching in 1986 at Tagaruto Primary School where I was paid an average of Ksh 200 for 17 years," she narrated.
The money she was earning at the time was barely able to cater for her needs and was only partly increased after the school's headmistress Lydia Ng’eno intervened which was then averaged at between Ksh 300 and Ksh 500.
Chelule obtained her certificate in ECED teaching 30 years ago and toiled for long before her big break arrived in 2020.
After toiling for 17 years, she landed a slot at Sogoet Primary School where she started earning Ksh 3,000 but now, the formally employed teacher is poised to take home Ksh13,800 in monthly pay.
"At one point, I lost hope when I did not get an appointment letter from the county government six years ago when the first lot of ECED teachers were taken in. I was on the brink of burning my certificates when one of my sons talked me out of it.
"With advent of county governments and ECED being a devolved function, TSC (Teachers Service Commission) eventually yielded to decades of pressure and registered the teachers," she remarked revealing that she obtained her TSC number in 2014.
She was awarded a one-year contract as she is about to attain retirement age but hopes she will be allowed to work until she is 65.
Her job offer comes at a time when unemployment is rising in the country as the pandemic continues to disrupt the economy.
According to census data released by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics in February, 5,341,182 or 38.9% of about 13,777,600 young Kenyans are jobless.
The statistics were captured before the pandemic hit the country further worsened the situation.
ECED teachers have had a tussle with the state with many complaining that they were largely ignored despite obtaining TSC numbers.
In 2017, a good number of public and private ECDE teachers asserted that they were reluctant to register because TSC was not responding to their pleas positively.
Before 2014, a majority of the teachers were at the mercies of schools' boards until county governments stepped in. TSC had always lamented that the state did not allocate enough money for the purpose.
