The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has failed to factor in an allocation for teachers’ pay rise according to a report it released to the Committee on Education and Research of the National Assembly.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani had allocated an additional Sh14.9 billion to the TSC, whose budget has risen to Sh296.6 billion from Sh281.7 billion in the new financial year.
TSC will receive an extra Sh15 billion for the 2022 – 2023 financial year, with sources saying the additional money is for a pay rise and hiring of new teachers.
However teachers maybe in for a rude shock as the report, which was presented to the Committee on Education and Research of the National Assembly by the Parliamentary Budget Office, shows TSC has planned to use its increased allocation of Sh15 billion exclusively to employ 13,000 secondary school teachers and 9,000 interns to cope with exits and the expected increase in enrolment when junior secondary is rolled out in January 2023.
This is bad news for teachers who have been hoping that their employer might offer them a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The issue of renegotiating the CBA was not discussed when TSC boss Nancy Macharia appeared before the parliamentary committee early Fabruary to discuss their budget proposals.
She told MPs allocations for other critical areas like promotion of teachers on competitive selection, roll-out of a national biometric enrolment and validation of teachers and gratuity to 3,358 contract tutors in northern Kenya had not been factored in.
“The commission would appreciate Parliament’s help for these areas to receive some allocation,” she said.
This move has prompted the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) to issue a strike threat.
The union officials argue that the economy has now improved and calls for the non-monetary CBA to be reviewed.
In a January 17 letter to TSC, Kuppet demanded a pay rise of at least 30 per cent and threatened to call a strike if the commission did not respond within 21 days.
The Commission responded on January 20 following the strike threat by Kuppet.
