Following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s last Budget of Sh3.31 trillion, where the teacher service commission was given Sh 15 billion extra for the salary increments and employment of more teachers, teachers have been waiting in vain any fruitful communication from TSC concerning when the salary increment shall be effected.
Teacher service commission has since kept quiet on the matter of salary increment for teachers which implies that teachers will have to wait a bit longer than expected for them to receive their salary increment.
The commission finally has come out to declare its stand on salary increment for teachers following the collective bargaining agreement for 2017-2021 which elapsed this year in July.
Teachers especially classroom teachers were expected to benefit or to gain more on the new CBA starting July this year but this did not happen as the new CBA that was signed did not have any monetary implementations. This was due to the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
As a result, teachers have to wait for at least one year before they can get the salary increment. The teacher service commission didn’t implement the 2021-2025 CBA according to the agreement because of economical constraints.
However, the commission and Union officials representing teachers agreed to delay the implementation for just one year to enable the commission to find out despite the economic tough times due to covid.
Unfortunate to the teachers, it is alleged that TSC was not ready to implement the new CBA and that the reasons they cited were not valid as the SRC did not object to the salary increment for teachers
It emerged that TSC was focusing on how to roll down the TPD modules and that delaying CBA implementation was a way of cornering the union officials to agree and support refresher courses.
If the unions will object the roll down of Teacher Professional Development modules then it means that the commission will halt the implementation of the salary increment process or CBA part two until such a time when the two parties shall reach an agreement
From the recent reports, Kuppet officials have so far disagreed with the commission’s intentions to force teachers to undergo the refresher courses. This means that teachers will have to wait a little bit longer for their salary increment to be effected.
