Teachers back CBA, say it was well negotiated

Teachers unions in the country have rallied behind the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between them and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) set to be effected from July 1.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) described the CBA as a milestone in the long fight towards better teachers’ salaries and conditions of service.

“As the Chairman of the African Principals Association, I have also a duty to praise our Teachers Service Commission when it does well. I will call a spade a spade and not a big spoon,” said Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion.

Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori was in agreement with Mr Sossion.

They made the remarks when they addressed over 8,000 principals and 3,000 delegates during this year’s Kenya Secondary Schools heads Association (KESSHA) annual conference at Wild Waters Centre in Mombasa.

WELL NEGOTIATED

“As unions we have done well. This CBA was well negotiated, discussed and agreed by the parties. We have analysed it and we are satisfied with the agreement both as Knut and Kuppet.

“Knut and Kuppet are in unity and speak the same language and this is what you wanted us to do and it is good for you,” Mr Sossion told the attentive principals.

Mr Sossion said the CBA considered the principal of equity where Sh3.6 billion more than that originally budgeted added to the package to cater for the classroom teacher.

“The budget as a result of the long negotiations increased from Sh12 billion to 17.3 billion to pay the classroom teacher not only the principals,” he said.

Mr Misori said the CBA had tremendously increased teachers’ pay packages with the lowest paid set to receive a salary of Sh43, 694 up from Sh31, 020.

INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGES

“The salaries of principals of national schools will move from Sh89, 741 to Sh157, 651. Those in county schools will have their salaries increased from Sh87, 000 to Sh118, 000 in those four years of the CBA period,” said Mr Misori.

Deputy principals in job group M and N will move to job group D3 and progressively earn Sh104,000, up from Sh48,500 while those in job group D2 will get an increase to Sh91,041, up from Sh40,190, added Mr Misori.

Senior teachers’ salaries will move from Sh41, 000 to Sh85, 261 while those in job group C3 will earn Sh53, 953, up from Sh35, 580, he said.

Although Mr Sossion hailed TSC for introducing a labour department to deal with industrial challenges and for being one central employment agency, he cautioned it against introducing additional sections without consultations and agreement with trade unions saying they will take the employer to court if this is done.

He also spelt out what he termed “grey” areas in the CBA including its four years grace period of its implementation.

EDUCATION REFORMS

“The CBA grace period should be reduced preferably to two years,” he said and urged TSC to involve teachers who are the key stakeholders, in every policy formulation process in future.

Although the teachers unions backed the education reforms and free secondary education from next year, Mr Sossion told TSC that it would be impossible to implement without adequate teachers.

“We are saying the government must put resources for this system to work. With a national teacher deficit of 90,000, how can it work?” he said.

He asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to sign an executive order so that money can be released to hire more teachers.

He said only Sh15 billion was required to hire 60,000 teachers which is a figure that will address the massive shortage.

SIMILAR MISTAKE

He noted that there was a general lack of preparedness on the new school curriculum which is “bound to cause chaos in the education sector.”

Teachers had not been trained for it and laboratories, classrooms and other infrastructural facilities were not there, he said.

“There is the danger of hurrying the new system with the possibility of backfiring like the 8-4-4 system. Malaysia did a similar mistake and had to return to the old system. We don’t want the same in Kenya,” he noted.

He called on the government to discontinue the Sh54 billion laptop programme and employ teachers instead, arguing that without enough cash, implementation of the new curriculum would be impossible saying he was worried because “up to now, TSC has not paid Term Two capitation funds”.

He said KNUT has written to both Jubilee and Nasa which had pledged free secondary school education in their manifestos asking them to clarify how the programme would be implemented.