The most anticipated news by teachers across the country have to do with the feedback from the ongoing retreat by the Teachers Service commission and the giant teachers union I e Kenya National union of teachers
This anticipation comes a day after the mentioned officials retreated to Naivasha to explore key education issues core among which is the possibility of brokering a pay hike for the thousands of teachers under TSC.
In July 2021,the two bodies signed a collective bargaining agreement that did not factor monetary aspects.This followed a salary freeze by the SRC occasioned by the deteriorating economic conditions caused by the COVID 19 pandemic ravages.
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This CBA has since been dubbed “The maternity CBA”Owing to the fact that the document only increased the maternity leave duration from the previous 90 days to 120 days!This was arguably benefited the female teachers who could now enjoy a longer leave.
Ever since the signing of this agreement,KUPPET AND KNUT have been consistently pushing for a better CBA with the recovery if the economy and the present meeting is touted to be the game changer in the push.
Mr Collins Oyuu, the secretary general of Knut, says that they want to talk about things the Education committee report and the proposed training for teachers’ professional development, among other things.
During the meeting,a raft of decisions will be expected to be made including the teachers who will handle the junior secondary schools in the new competency based curriculum
The 2021-2025 CBA, which did not give teachers any pay raise, will form the key focus in the retreat.
It should be noted that the recently read budget dis bit factor in money for salary increaments but the stakeholders are optimistic to push for the rise through a supplementary budget.
In addition to the maternity days extension for female teachers,male teachers benefited from an extension of 7 more days for paternity leave bringing them to 21 instead of the previous 14.
The Commission has pronounced itself on the just allocated budget Insisting that the money received from treasury will not be user to fund payrise.. instead,the money will go into recruitment and replacement of teachers to handle the bulging numbers of kids in schools across the country at all levels.
It’s expected that once these talks are concluded,the employer will also meet with KUPPET to iron out education related issues.
Earlier,Kuppet had submitted their proposals that demanded that the basic monthly salary of the lowest-paid teacher to increase from Sh34,955 to Sh59,425 and that of the highest-paid teacher to go up from Sh118,242 to Sh153,715.
Knut, on the other end , wanted the pay to go up by between 15% and 20%. Mr Oyuu is also trying to get commuter and house allowances changed to keep up with prevailing economic trends
