Teachers push for Sh7.8 billion promotions kitty for 90,000 tutors

Teachers are pushing for a pay rise of up to 70 per cent and promotion of 90,000 tutors who have stagnated in their present job groups for nearly two decades.

According to details presented to the teachers’ employer by the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), teachers want a salary increment of between 30 and 70 per cent in the new 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

If granted, Kuppet’s proposal for all the 318,000 primary and secondary school teachers will see salaries for lowest paid teachers rise from Sh21,756 to Sh36,985.

Additionally, the government will require Sh8 billion to promote the primary and secondary school teachers. Some of these teachers have attained higher professional academic qualifications, but have never been acknowledged.

The union wants the highest paid teacher under job group D4, who currently earns Sh118,242, to take home Sh153,714.

Kuppet also wants a house allowance for teachers in all regions to range between Sh6,750 and Sh45,000. This is in addition to another proposal for township allowance for all county headteachers, ranging from Sh3,500 to Sh8,000.

The Saturday Standard established that the new salary raise proposals and demand for promotions will form part of the critical discussions between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Kuppet in a retreat scheduled for September 23-27.

The detailed promotions document however shows that primary school headteachers, their deputies and heads of departments, are the most affected, with 30,000 of them not promoted in many years.

Need promotion

These teachers will fall under job group D1 and it will cost the government Sh3 billion to promote them. Presently, there are only 11,975 teachers in this category. Broken down, some 15,000 teachers in job group C5 should also be promoted at a Sh1.6 billion cost to the government.

The union says another 10,000 teachers in job group C4 have stagnated for long and need to be promoted at a cost of Sh900 million.

Kuppet says 20,000 teachers in job group C3 are eligible for promotion and this will cost the government Sh1.5 billion, while 8,000 tutors in job group C2 should be elevated at a cost of Sh475 million.

And for those in job group C2, some 5,000 teachers will be moved up at a cost of Sh231 million. Only 2,000 teachers under job group B5 are due for promotion and this will cost Sh73 million.

Explaining the need for urgent ?promotions to the TSC, Kuppet secretary general Akello Misori said the staff are highly demotivated after stagnating in one grade for up to 15 years.

Misori said the job evaluation exercise conducted before the signing and implementation of the 2016 CBA affected many teachers’ upward mobility.

He said while the CBA created positions of substantive appointments in administrative positions, many of those positions are yet to be filled.

“Many positions of senior masters in secondary schools, deputy principals and principals are yet to be fully implemented,” reads a letter to Nancy Macharia, the TSC chief executive officer. The letter signed by Misori is dated September 6.

In the letter, Misori says diploma teachers, formerly of job group J and K (currently C1, C2) are yet to know their fate.

The TSC last month defended its promotions track record, saying it has been issuing promotion letters to reflect CBA adjustments.

In a detailed explanation, Macharia said all teachers who were in job group G were moved to B5, equivalent to job group H, while all teachers who were in job group H were moved to C1, equivalent to job group J.?

She said senior teachers who were between job group G and K were moved to C2, an equivalent of job group K.?

“All deputy headteachers in G-L were moved to C4, equivalent to job group M, while all headteachers who were in G-L moved to C5, equivalent to job group N,” said Macharia.

She said all headteachers in job groups M and N were moved to D1, equivalent to job group P.

The TSC tabled a report in Parliament in February this year, explaining that there are 54,702 teachers who have upgraded their education and acquired new academic papers.  

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