Teachers will receive an increase in basic salary of up to 9.5 percent after an agreement between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the teacher unions.
In a press statement on Monday, August 28, TSC noted that Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET) signed an agreement to amend the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“Teachers have secured an increase in house allowance for teachers categorized under Cluster4 payable in two financial years with effect from 1st July 2023.
The net effect of this is that the House allowance for Cluster 3 and 4 has been harmonized. The full harmonization will be complete in July 2024,” said TSC CEO Dr.Nancy Macharia.
Further, Macharia said the new salary structure will be implemented immediately in the August payroll and arrears backdated to 1st July 2023.
Also, the commission noted that 87 percent of teachers are earning house allowance under the cluster 4 category and assured teachers at the end of the month (August).
Other terms of service
Besides the benefits secured under the CBA, the Commission and the Unions have had several negotiations aimed at improving the welfare of teachers in Kenya.
As a result of these bipartisan engagements, the Commission concluded the promotion of 14,738 teachers in August 2023 and has advertised an additional 36,275 vacancies for promotions.
According to TSC, the objective of these promotions is to motivate teachers as they advance in their career to improve productivity and performance.
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Further, TSC has agreed to re-look at the Career Progression of SNE teachers and their workload, especially those who are stationed in Special Units with a view to ensuring that they are optimally utilized.
“TSC thanks all the three unions for demonstrating restraint, commitment, and good faith during negotiations.
The Commission also salutes all our teachers for being committed to serve, toil and shine for the betterment of our children’s education,” stated Macharia.
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Unions Clash after TSC meeting
After the last meeting with TSC on Tuesday, August 22, KNUT and KUPPET had different takes on the proposal to increase teachers’ salaries by 2.4 to 9.5 percent.
KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misori rejected the proposal arguing it was lower than their expectations.
“They have come up with figures like 9.5% for those who are in the lower category and about 2.4% for those who are earning higher grades,” stated Misori.
On the other hand, KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyu said the union would accept the offer.
“KNUT welcomes the 2.4% to 9.5% increment, and we have reasons. We said, of what was presented, let the lowest earning teacher get the highest percentage and the highest earning get the lowest teacher. In that line, we agree with TSC.
What we expected in the review is not what they brought to us, and we asked them a question, suppose the president did not pronounce 7% to 10% then what you were going to bring to us,” said Oyuu.
Previously, KUPPET had criticized TSC for being inconsistent with President William Ruto’s directive and SRC advisory to increase teachers and civil servants’ salaries by between 7% and 10%.
