President Kenyatta rules out pay increase for teachers

President Uhuru Kenyatta with Knut leaders Wilson Sossion (second left), Mudzo Nzili (second right) at KICC Nairobi on February 4, 2015 when he officially opened the 8th Education International Africa Regional Conference. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI |

What you need to know:

  • Knut, Kuppet leaders attend State House talks to resolve row over pay and Mandera boycott.
  • President says government is investing in other areas, including connecting schools to the electricity grid.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday dashed the hopes teachers had of getting a salary increase any time soon.

The President, a former Finance minister conversant with the resources available to the government, said his administration was investing elsewhere in the education sector, such as taking electricity to schools.

“You know we are living in a world of limited resources. We are already using money for connecting schools with electricity and ensuring our children access ICT tools. So, I ask you (teachers) to be patient because there must be a balance in ensuring our children access quality education,” he said in Nairobi.

Aware that his statement would be disappointing to the many teachers who had taken to the streets to demand more money during a two-week strike last month, he dangled the hope that at some point in the future, their demands would be addressed.

“We have made efforts to improve pay for teachers but some will say we have not done enough. Rome was not built in a day. I ask you, my friends, let’s give each other space and time. Tutembee pole pole tutafika (Lets walk slowly and we will get there),” he said.

He said that since independence, education was the third single sector that takes the largest chunk of the national budget.

Teachers have been asking that their salaries be increased by 200 per cent and in January, rejected a Sh9.3 billion offer to improve their allowances, and to cover car loans and mortgages.

The industrial court intervened to end the strike that had paralysed learning in public schools.

The court is adjudicating the dispute between the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education teachers on one hand and the Teachers Service Commission and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission on the other. No agreement has been reached.

PUBLIC SERVICE WAGE

Numbers provided by the TSC paint a sobering picture of the cost of teachers’ salaries to the economy and the far-reaching impact of doubling their basic pay.

Teachers, who are paid Sh161 billion, take 23 per cent of the public service wage, which totals Sh500 billion.

About 59 per cent of the country’s education budget goes to paying teachers, according to TSC.

If their salaries are doubled, it pushes their collective salaries to Sh684 billion, which would gobble up 99 per cent of the government’s entire recurrent budget and 174 per cent of the education budget.

President Kenyatta is reported to have met Knut and Kuppet officials at State House to thrash out issues affecting teachers, including the refusal to return to work by over 1,000 teachers from the north over security fears.

Addressing a teachers’ unions delegates conference at KICC, President Kenyatta said the government had made dramatic steps to ensure teachers earned a decent income and urged them to give the government “breathing space” since it had to balance their salary demands with other needs in the education sector.

Seeking to soften the hearts of the teachers, President Kenyatta said his government was keen to deliver laptops for every Standard One pupil in spite of the challenges facing the programme, saying it was one of his administration’s pledges to improve the quality of education by exposing pupils to ICT at an early age.

By the end of the financial year, every primary school in the country will be connected to electricity, he promised during the official opening of the 8th Education International Africa regional conference attended by delegates of teachers’ unions from over 170 countries.

IMPROVING QUALITY OF EDUCATION

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi asked teachers not to think only of their interests during strikes, but also those of students and parents.

“We should examine the role of trade unions in education by ensuring they take into considerations the rights and privileges of other people, such as students and parents and not only those of teachers,” he said.

The focus of the conference, which ends on Friday, is to find ways of improving the quality of education to ensure the continent meets the goal of education for all, which is part of the Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by the end of this year.

Earlier, Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion had pitched for improved pay for teachers, saying the government was unlikely to achieve the goal of ensuring quality education unless teachers were properly paid and motivated.

“We have identified three areas that need to be addressed in order to improve the quality of education: Enough quality trained teachers earning fair remuneration, quality teaching and learning tools and a quality learning environment,” he said.

Reacting to the President’s announcement, Mr Sossion said: “In the labour movement we do not contradict the speech of the President. We can fight the minister or the employer, but not what the President says.”