Paying teachers more is an act of economic sabotage

Were it not for the wisdom of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the teachers’ employer would have agreed to increase the lowest paid teacher’s Sh16,692 salary by 60 per cent.

Such was the folly of the Teachers Service Commission that it told the Industrial Relations court, which was arbitrating the pay dispute to end the January 2015 strike, that it could raise salaries by between 50 and 60 per cent. Then it listened to the SRC advice and realised the error of its ways.

TSC – and the government for that matter - has never been fazed by strikes. Since independence, teachers have gone on strike 12 times, and on none of those occasions was it bad enough to change the price of milk –let alone have an effect on education.

The last nine teachers’ strikes occurred in the past 18 years when the government agreed to increase salaries, changed its mind and revoked the agreement, before being forced to reinstate it by a court.

Finally, the teachers’ salary demands ended up before a judge early this year, who found that the lowest paid tutor could not afford the basket of goods and services needed to survive – falling eight percentage points below the Consumer Price Index.

VALUE FOR THEIR TAXES

Although a report to the court from the Central Planning Monitoring Unit at the Ministry of Labour recommended a 128 per cent pay rise to reflect the prevailing CPI, the fellows who wrote it know nothing about motivation.

As it were, no one really knows what value teachers add to the economy, hence the promise by the SRC to complete job evaluations by last month. Kenyans deserve to get value for their taxes, especially since it is not clear how many uneducated children are leaving school.

For far too long, teachers have contented with their station in life, acting as if they have taken a vow of poverty, while other Kenyans are busy running side hustles in the motorcycle business, opening bars and butcheries, selling mobile phone airtime and home-baked cookies.

Their only attempts have been holiday tuition – which was banned for betraying a total lack of entrepreneurial imagination.

This career indolence, which allows teachers to routinely fall below the consumer price index, must be discouraged through muscular official policy.

After all, teachers are role models who are responsible for shaping the minds and attitudes of young people. They cannot be allowed to teach them indolence when they could be setting an example on how to hustle.

Equally undesirable is the propensity of individuals in the teaching profession to consider their calling as permanent and unchangeable. Teachers must be encouraged to be ambitious and aim to join elective politics where a member of the county assembly earns Sh157,574 – nearly 10 times what a P1 teacher gets.

With time, teachers could scale up their ambitions to join constitutional commissions, vie for seats in Parliament or receive appointments to the Cabinet where salaries are decent, allowances plentiful and perks a guaranteed privilege.

Already, the budget is squeezed, and there are so many things that require urgent funding – such as a Sh60 billion bailout for the patriotic Kenya Airways, which made an unfortunate loss due a change in the weather.

Budgets are cast in stone and nothing short of a miracle will change what has already been set aside as teachers’ pay. Suggestions by the court that the pay award be spread out over four years – between July 2013 and July 2017 – are not practicable, given that there is an election round the corner.

Besides, there are genuine fears about Spartan teachers having too much money on their hands to concentrate on teaching. There are fears many might take a trip to Uganda, thus sabotage an economy struggling to fund projects for achieving Vision 2030.

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