Teachers Set To Receive Higher Salaries Under CBC

Teachers employed under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) are set to receive higher salaries in July as a new job evaluation finally recognizes their huge role in school when their current 54 billion shillings pay deal lapses.

According to a report by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), it has disclosed that the last job evaluation was skewed, favoring school heads while leaving classroom teachers broke.

The input of other teachers besides the headteachers was undervalued which resulted in poor salaries. The new pay deal aims at recognizing the efforts made by these teachers in their line of duty according to the report.

It discloses that the present Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), implemented based on the last job evaluation, heavily favored headteachers as it did not aptly capture classroom teachers’ job descriptions.

“There were significant disparities in the compensation and career progression between the institutional administrators and classroom teachers in the teaching profession as the job evaluation results for 2016/2017 did not adequately cater for the remuneration of classroom teachers. This might be attributed to poor development of job descriptions in 2016,” reads the report.

This means for the last four years, classroom teachers, who are also the majority of staff – were underpaid in the CBA, which winds up in June.

According to the current CBA, primary school headteachers and secondary school principals were moved to higher job grades in 2016. The primary school heads were automatically moved up to Grade D1, where they earn between 77,840 and 93,408 shillings.

Primary headteachers with lower student populations were elevated to C5, earning KSh 62,272 and KSh 77,840. The primary school’s deputy headteachers on the other hand were moved up to Grade C4 and C5 where they earn between Ksh 52,308 and Ksh 65,385.

Senior primary teachers were moved up, to grade C2, to earn between Sh34,955 and 43,694.

As for Principals of national schools, they were moved to Grade D5 earning between Ksh 131,380 and Ksh 157,656. The pay for secondary school teachers was based on school categories.

Principals of county schools were moved to grade D4 as those of sub-county boarding schools rose to Grade D4. Deputies headteachers of county and sub-county schools moved to grades D3 and D2 respectively.

With the new report, the remuneration of headteachers will no longer be based on the categories of schools, which has brought about administrative challenges in the appointment, deployment, and transfer of teachers.

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