Teachers may have ‘papers’, but please peg pay on performance

This week, teachers’ unions slapped the Teachers’ Service Commission with a proposal demanding a 300 per cent pay rise. If granted, it would see the lowest paid teacher get a Sh50,000 salary every month. The unions want the highest paid teacher to take home a Sh1.3 million salary, basically more than MPs and even top managers of many a small limited liability company in Kenya. Leafing through the proposed structures, I got a bit lost in thought, jealous even. For a moment I almost forgot that I’m paid to ensure the story and figures were accurate and concisely rendered, and not to rack my brains over whether it was right.

Let me state from the outset that I have teachers’ best wishes in this old heart. So much that if there were demonstrations to demand decent pay for teachers, I would be the first one on Tom Mboya Street with twigs and a whistle, chest all bared against the water cannon and the tear gas.