The Teachers Service Commission is being urged by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) to examine teachers’ pay, with the lowest-paid teachers potentially receiving an increase of Sh14,550, bringing their annual income to Sh38,800.
According to KNUT, the 300,000 or more teachers will see a 60% pay boost under the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Currently, the basic pay for teachers in Job Group B1 is Sh24,250.
The top paid teachers who belong under Job Group D5 will see a wage raise of approximately Sh89,016 if the effort receives TSC approval. This suggests that the new teacher wage will be Sh237,376 instead of the current Sh148,360.
In order to protect teachers from the exorbitant costs of refresher training, the union also requests funding from the government.
In addition, the powerful union has pushed lawmakers to pay Sh4.5 billion for refresher courses for teachers’ Teacher Professional Development (TPD).
The union also wants the promotion standards to be reviewed in favor of tutors with higher degrees.
Over 60,000 teachers, according to Mr. Oyuu, have advanced degrees, master’s degrees, or PhDs, and they should be promoted.
Currently, a CBA between the union and the employer of teachers only included liberal transfers and improved maternity benefits to help couples.
The TSC and the teachers’ union withdrew to Naivasha two weeks ago to discuss, among other things, the possibility of reviewing the CBA.
Knut claims that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s announcement of a pay raise for civil servants during Labor Day festivities served as evidence that the nation’s economy had fully recovered from the shocks caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
