Boost for teachers as TSC clears path to Sh54b pay

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has kicked off implementation of the Sh54 billion salary agreement.

An internal memo seen by The Standard on Saturday instructs all County Directors to submit accurate data of schools complete with enrollment lists.

“The Commission is in the process of laying down modalities for the implementation the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the teaching service. To that effect, you are required to submit actual data for all institutions (primary and secondary) in the format attached,” reads the memo dated January 20.

The document signed by Abdirizak Farah, requires all directors to submit data based on the categorisation of schools.

This means separate secondary schools data is required for national, extra-county, county and sub-county schools complete with enrollments and number of streams per schools.

And for primary schools, schools have been categorised based on enrollment figures.

The document says all schools with pupil enrollment of up to 1,000 will fall under category one. And those with 1,001 pupils to 1, 500 will fall under category two. The third category will comprise schools with enrollment capacity of above 1, 500.

“You are asked to take the contents of this memo seriously and ensure data required is accurate and is submitted by the set deadline,” read the memo.

Farah, who is a senior TSC deputy director (Teacher management post primary) says the directors have one week to submit data.

“This information should reach the director teacher management not later than Friday January 27, 2017,” reads the letter.

The development comes a month after TSC officially registered the Sh54 billion salary deal with the courts.

In a statement released last year, TSC chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said the CBA was filed by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.

“This is a requirement under Section 60 of the Labour Relations Act (2007), in readiness for implementation,” said Macharia. She said the Commission is working on the implementation modalities and details of benefits to individual teachers.

“The details will be communicated in a circular in early 2017,” she said. And the release of the internal memo signaled the commencement of the implementation of the teachers’ new deal.

Macharia said TSC is working on the implementation modalities of the CBA to ensure teachers get paid by July 1, 2017.

Details of the CBA indicate that the total cost of implementation the CBA will be Sh54 billion in addition to the current teachers wage bill of Sh186 billion. The deal was signed between TSC and Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) on October 25 and 26 respectively.

In an earlier statement, Ms Macharia said the commission will work round-the-clock to deliver on its mandate in line with the commissions’ reforms agenda.

“We want to make the Commission great again. My dream is to bring back honour and professionalism to the teaching service,” said Ms Macharia. She said starting January this year, her office will strive to make TSC ‘an employer that teachers are proud of and one that the secretariat will enjoy working for.’

“The teachers will be required to put their best foot forward in the provision of better teaching and learning outcomes for quality education,” said Ms Macharia.

The new salary deal also overhauled the current grading system and capped the overall salary of the highest paid teacher at Sh157, 656.

“A new expanded grading structure based on the worth of each job has been adopted with the following grades B5, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5. Previously teachers were graded from Job Group G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, and R,” said Macharia.

In total, about 200,000 teachers will benefit from the scrapping of P1 and elevation of all primary heads.

Job Groups P,Q and R have been expanded to the new grades of D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5.