Teachers pay deal to be honoured in July, says TSC
Teacher Service Commission chairperson Lydia Nzomo (right) and Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba exchange copies of the CBA at a Naivasha hotel, on October 26, 2016. PHOTO | MACHARIA MWANGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The Teachers’ Service Commission chair Lydia Nzomo on Friday promised to implement the Collective Bargaining Agreement from July 1.
- The least paid teachers are those in job group B5 with a minimum salary of Sh21,756 and a maximum of Sh27,195.
- Homa Bay Kuppet executive secretary Stephen Yogo complained that teachers were not paid like their educated colleagues in other professions.
Primary and secondary school teachers are set for an increase in salaries and promotions from July following plans to implement an agreement between their union and the employer.
The Teachers’ Service Commission chair Lydia Nzomo on Friday promised to implement the Collective Bargaining Agreement from July 1.
Speaking at Homa Bay High School during the county education day, Ms Nzomo assured teachers the commission will honour the agreement as signed.
“I appeal to teachers to be confident and work hard towards improving education,” she said, adding that new grades will be created with improved salaries and a number of teachers being promoted.
In the newly created job groups, D5 is the highest grade with the highest paid teacher taking home a minimum salary of Sh131,380 and a maximum of Sh157,656.
TEACHERS UNDERPAID
The least paid teachers are those in job group B5 with a minimum salary of Sh21,756 and a maximum of Sh27,195.
Other job groups in the CBA include C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, D1, D2, D3 and D4 with varying salary scales which increase from one grade to another.
But, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers executive secretary in the County Stephen Yogo and his Kisumu counterpart Zablon Awange complained that teachers were not paid like their educated colleagues in other professions.
“Implementation of the salaries is not satisfactory. Teachers are the least paid compared to their colleagues who work in other departments with similar academic qualifications. We still need money,” Mr Yogo said.
Mr Awange questioned the method used by TSC in awarding house allowances to teachers working in major towns saying it was discriminative.
In the harmonization arrangement effected in November 2015, teachers within Kisumu, Mombasa and Nakuru municipalities would receive an average increment of Sh4, 000 depending on job groups, to meet the high cost of housing in the towns.
HOUSE ALLOWANCE
However, Mr Awange said several secondary schools among them Lions, Xaverian, Ignatius, Magadi, Joel Omino and Nyamasaria have complained that they did not receive any upward house allowance adjustments despite teaching in town-based schools while others had their house allowances adjusted downwards.
Ms Nzomo on Sunday clarified that a circular directing teachers to report on duty during weekends was not meant to infringe on their freedom of worship but to give them an opportunity to attend to learners at their own time.
“But still have the opportunity to go and worship as they used to do before,” she said.
At the same time, she expressed concern over under-staffing that is affecting schools and attributed it to free primary education and subsidized secondary education which had attracted high number of learners.
She said TSC lacked adequate funds but promised to employ more teachers as soon as the commission got funds.
