Teachers who snubbed NE still on payroll
TSC chairperson Lydia Nzomo (left) and TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni at a past press briefing. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The TSC gave until June 12 for Kenyans to tender their applications.
- Group that abandoned work because of insecurity won a court case compelling TSC to pay up
Teachers who abandoned work in north-eastern Kenya because of insecurity are still drawing salaries and costing the taxpayer Sh50 million a month.
The lowest-paid teacher – one with a certificate and who has worked for a year – takes home Sh24,692 in salary and allowances. There are teachers with more years of experience, consequently earning more.
There are at least 900 certificate teachers deployed in north-eastern Kenya who will have been paid for five months by the end of May.
Additionally, according to Teachers’ Service Commission figures, there are 500 graduate teachers employed in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties and the least paid takes home a gross pay of Sh57,020.
Cumulatively, primary and secondary teachers have been paid at least Sh250 million since the beginning of the year.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Lengoiboni said they were engaging local leaders to see how to normalise the situation.
“We had to comply with the court order and pay the teachers for no work done. We are, however, looking for ways to see how those students are taught,” Mr Lengoiboni told the Sunday Nation on the telephone.
The TSC withheld salaries, but a court ordered it to release the pay in February and continue payment of future salaries.
Mr Johnes Onsoro, a former teacher in north-eastern Kenya, said that following the court order, they have already been paid their April and May salaries in a lumpsum.
FEBRUARY ARREARS
“Only the arrears of February and March are remaining which will be paid by end of June,” said Mr Onsoro, who is the spokesperson of NEP teachers.
Headteachers who attended a three-day conference at a Garissa hotel last week called on the TSC to channel the salaries of the teachers who boycotted work to pay teachers employed by school boards of management and parents and teachers’ associations.
The conference was attended by governors Nathif Jama (Garissa) and Ahmed Abdullahi (Wajir), area legislators and education stakeholders.
Governor Abdullahi urged the national government to find solutions to the ailing education sector in north-eastern Kenya saying the entire region would lose a generation of learners if the problem is not addressed urgently.
Teachers from the area refused to go back to work in the first term citing insecurity after 28 people — a majority of them teachers travelling home for their Christmas holidays — were killed when Al-Shabaab militants attacked a bus heading to Nairobi just outside Mandera town.
The teachers, though untrained, have been called in by school boards to salvage the dire situation which has seen the closure of 83 primary and 12 secondary schools in Garissa County alone.
On Friday, the TSC announced that it was hiring primary and secondary school teachers aged between 45 and 65 to be posted to the arid and semi-arid areas, including northern Kenya.
The notice, signed by Mr Lengoiboni, said the commission would enter into three-year contracts with the successful applicants who would be paid according to agreed terms.
“They should be retired, trained teachers below the age of 65 years or trained teachers who are over 45 years of age and have not secured employment with the commission,” Mr Lengoiboni said.
The TSC gave until June 12 for Kenyans to tender their applications.
