The Teachers Service Commission is set to increase teachers’ salaries in the month of August, complete with arrears backdated to 1st July 2023. This is expected to happen after the Budget and Appropriations Committee, led by Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, set aside KSh 10 billion strictly for the implementation of the 2021-2025 CBA.
The 2021-2025 CBA signed by TSC with teachers’ unions—Kenya National Union of Teachers, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, and Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers—on 28th August 2023 was to have been funded through the 2024 Finance Bill. Budget cuts proposed by the Treasury have delayed the implementation.
This increment will be done in two phases. The first phase started on 1st July 2023, and the second one is on 1st July 2024. Initially, the teaching professionals were to feel the changes in their July 2024 payslip but now adjustments will reflect in August.
House allowance rates are categorized into four clusters:
- Cluster 1: Nairobi City
- Cluster 2: Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi, and Kitale municipalities
- Cluster 3: Other former municipalities
- Cluster 4: All other areas
Coupled with this salary increments, the Basic Education budget will increase by KSh 14.3 billion to KSh 131.2 billion to support free primary education, free day secondary education, and Junior Secondary School. This increment entailed KSh 11.98 billion for free primary and KSh 2.4 billion for free day secondary. Also, KSh 5 billion was set aside for national tests and examinations for nearly 3.5 million learners at Grade Three, Six, and Form Four.
TSC will be given an additional KSh 29.5 billion for Teacher Resource Management; out of this, KSh 17.6 billion is for conversion of the 46,000 intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms while KSh 11.9 billion will go for teachers’ medical cover.
According to TSC CEO Nancy Macharia, the comprehensive medical cover, group life, personal accident and Work Injury Benefits Act, WIBA, covers for teachers will be incorporated if funding is adequate. The third-year teachers’ medical contract, which is due to begin on December 1st, will cost KSh 20.6 billion.
The Higher Education and Research increase will be KSh 1.15 billion to KSh 120.4 billion. Out of this, the increase is supposed to cushion any shock in student funding and to carry forward school meal programmes for improved attendance, nutrition, and economic stability.