Over 3,000 teachers to get salary increase

PHOTO | FILE Teachers wait to be attended to at the TSC headquarters in Nairobi in 2009. The commission has promoted 3,500 teachers.

What you need to know:

  • Successful candidates will get a salary raise and enhanced allowances besides qualifying to be deputy principals, says TSC
  • Kenya National Union of Teachers chairman Wilson Sossion welcomed the promotions, but said the “number is inadequate”.
  • Mr Sossion proposed that movement of teachers from Job Group L to M be made automatic to ensure more staff moved to higher grades. They should not be subjected to interviews, he said

Some 3,500 public school teachers have been promoted to a higher rank that will boost their salaries and clear the way for new appointments. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) secretary, Mr Gabriel Lengoiboni, said all the affected teachers would be moved up one grade — from Job Group L to M.

The effective dates of their new grades will be backdated to the various dates when each of them sat the interviews last year.

The promotions are significant to the teachers who will now be referred to as senior teachers, and who will qualify to deputise or even head some district or county schools as principals.

Besides, their salary ranges will move from a maximum of Sh45,000 per month to between Sh45,000 and Sh55,000.

Their medical allowances will also be raised.

The list of the newly promoted teachers is published in Monday’s Daily Nation.

They were picked from among 8,000 teachers shortlisted and interviewed on various dates last year.

Utmost professionalism

Mr Lengoiboni said the interviews were carried out transparently.

“As a commission, we are determined to ensure teacher promotions are conducted with utmost professionalism and that each member of staff merits their new grades,” he said.

He said he was awaiting allocation of further funds before initiating more promotions.

The commission intends to promote many more teachers who passed interviews to Job Group M when it receives adequate funding.

Mr Lengoiboni said letters notifying successful teachers of their new status were being prepared. The promotions will earn the teachers various titles including senior graduate teacher and approved teacher (secondary schools).

The promotions follow interviews held in line with a new criterion that requires senior teachers to face panels before they can move to upper grades.

Mr Lengoiboni said interviews were the best way to ensure meritocracy in promotions.

Kenya National Union of Teachers chairman Wilson Sossion welcomed the promotions, but said the “number is inadequate”.

“We have many teachers who qualified for the promotions but cannot be elevated because TSC does not  have the money,” he said.

“We are demanding that more money be allocated to the commission to ensure more teachers are promoted in the next financial year.”

Last month, the union demanded more than Sh4 billion for teacher promotions.

Mr Sossion proposed that movement of teachers from Job Group L to M be made automatic to ensure more staff moved to higher grades. They should not be subjected to interviews, he said.

He also proposed that new job groups S and T be created to ensure senior teachers can move to much higher grades. Currently, the most senior teacher is placed on Job Group R.

Last year, the commission said it had lined up 24,000 teachers for possible promotion this year. Of those targeted, 8,000 would move to job group M.

For the first time, the interviews for the promotions were conducted in counties.

This was aimed at speeding up the exercise and save teachers the cost of travelling to the commission’s headquarters as has been the case in the past.

Heads of departments

Teachers in Job Group L are a common cadre of university graduates who would have moved to the job group after serving for at least three years in the previous job group (K).

Once they are promoted to job group M, they would immediately qualify to be called senior teachers who can become heads of departments, deputy principals and heads of small schools.

During the interviews in the counties, panels worked on a rotation basis as one way of ensuring there was no corruption arising from familiarity with candidates.

Additionally, some staff from the commission were dispatched to team up with county staff to help strengthen their work.

The next batch will be that of teachers seeking to enter job groups N, P, Q and R, many of them principals.