Teachers get 20 per cent salary raise

Updated 6 hr(s) 19 min(s) ago

By Linah Benyawa and Patrick Beja

In a move to quell rising discontent among teachers, the Government has now promised to raise their salaries by 20 per cent at the end of July.

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chairman Ibrahim Hussein told 10,000 primary school head teachers attending the seventh annual Kenya Primary School Heads Association (Kepsha) conference in Mombasa that the increase was part of negotiated salary raise and would benefit all teachers.

However, the amount excludes allowances, and in return TSC wants an improvement in discipline and performance.

Teachers Service Commission Chairman Ibrahim Hussein (left) and UNICEF Programme Officer Elias Noor during the ongoing Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association annual conference at Sheikh Zayed Hall in Mombasa. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO /STANDARD]

"Teachers are free to negotiate better pay, but as your employer we will demand better services in return," Hussein said.

Teachers met the announcement with jubilation. They had been paid 40 per cent of the negotiated raise in the first phase and another 40 per cent in the second. The TSC chairman promised they would be paid the remaining 20 per cent in line with an agreement that was signed by the Government in 2009.

Former Knut Secretary General Lawrence Majali had led a paralysing teachers strike to win the pay increment.

In the 2009 deal, the Government agreed to raise the salaries of teachers in phases over three years.

"We had promised to pay you in three phases and we will complete the last phase at the end of this month, I want to assure teachers that there will be better terms," Hussein added.

He expressed concern over the acute shortage of qualified teachers, but was diplomatic in calling on Government to allocate funds for hiring more teachers to ease the crisis.

"I want us to pray together so that people who allocate funds can see sense and give TSC more money to employ teachers, because the situation has been worsening," Hussein said.

He said the teacher shortage in the country currently stands at 61,000, and would reach 75,000 by next year if the Government does not employ this year.

He said the failure to employ teachers has seriously compromised the quality of education in the country. He said so far TSC has recommended to Government to employ the 18,000 contract teachers to permanent and pensionable terms immediately, and employ 10,000 each year, until the current shortage is fully addressed.

He said it was time for Kenyans to pray for Parliament to allocate funds for hiring teachers to save the quality of our education.

"It is also our recommendation that the contract of 18,000 teachers converts to permanent and pensionable terms immediately," Hussein said.

To embrace child friendly schools, Hussein told head teachers to refrain using schoolchildren as domestic workers or met out corporal punishment.

Special allowances

"Don’t turn our schools into prisons. You should not use children as cooks or send them to fetch water and firewood for preparing meals in schools. Employ cooks," he warned.

He said TSC was willing to negotiate for special allowances for primary school head teachers but there should be clear modalities on whether this will be based on teachers’ grades or the size of schools.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) assistant secretary general Mr Mudzo Nzili they would discuss a new and better Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with a better remuneration package for teachers.

He was representing the Knut executive council at the conference.

Nzili said the new CBA would include all the issues proposed by Kepsha such as responsibility allowance and extraneous allowance for primary school heads.

Kepsha chairman Joseph Karuga had earlier demanded a scheme of service for primary school heads.

"I know that as we sit in this conference today, there are many teachers who have not attended due to lack of finances," Nzili said.

He said the situation has been aggravated by the famine disaster in the country.

"Some of you have traveled for this conference after fundraising at your schools," he said.

The announcement of better pay for teachers came as a radical report by the Education Reform Taskforce recommended the use of Information Communication Technology to support distance learning in schools.

The Standard has obtained a copy of the report that was due for release today.

If adopted, the proposal that learning through ICT be adopted at all levels of learning is implemented.

Distance learning

In its final report to embattled Education Minister Sam Ongeri, the taskforce recommends that open and distance learning be adopted at all levels of Kenyan education.

This means that pupils and students may no longer have to be physically present in class to learn if they have access to a computer.

"Adopt open and distance learning approaches at all institutions that envisage to establish openuniversities in Kenya," reads the proposal in part.

The recommendation by taskforce chaired by an eminent scholar, Prof Douglas Odhiambo, seems to support the Government’s pilot program that saw some 1,050 schools selected to pilot the ICT project.

Under this program, each school received Sh1 million to purchase 11 computers, an LCD projector, printer, and a laptop for the teacher and accessories including the digital curriculum for the teachers.

The taskforce recommended that the Government progressively provide the necessary capacity, infrastructure and equipment needed for ICT in all educational institutions.

"The Government shall also provide administrative framework to support the effective integration and coordination of education and training," read the report in part.

The report proposes that each primary school establish a centre stocked with 50 computers.

"Each school shall establish a centre for ICT in education and training facilities."