TSC: Primary school teachers to get pay rise from July 2020

A total of 100,000 Grade B5 primary school teachers, previously P1, will from July 2020 get a pay rise in a 7 billion deal announced by TSC.

The Teachers Service Commission CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia told the national assembly yesterday that Grade B5 teachers will automatically get promotions to Grade C1. In the lucky bunch are also about 5,000 diploma teachers in secondary schools.

Appearing before the National Assembly Educations committee to present this year’s budget policy statement, Dr. Macharia said that Sh7 billion is ready for annual salary increments and promotions.

The statement will be a message of joy to the teachers who were in 2017 promoted to the higher grade after the signing of a collective bargaining agreement (2017-2021) that saw the pay rise implemented in two phases.

Primary school teachers’ basic salary currently ranges between Sh21,756 and Sh27,195. The increment will change their economic status as they EARN between Sh27,195 and Sh33,994.

The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has been pushing for the promotion of diploma teachers Grade c1. It has blamed the government for neglecting them and not treating them with the respect they deserve.

Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba has praised the upgrades asking the teachers’ employer to work and do more deserving promotions.

Teachers in Job Groups K and J currently Grade C2 and Grade C1 respectively, did not get promotions alongside others when the 2017-2021 CBA came into effect on July 1.

In January, the TSC appointed more than 7,000 school heads and their deputies.

Some 1,000 of them are principals and deputies in secondary schools while the rest are in primary schools.

TSC had put a requirement that a secondary school principal and deputy should have a master’s degree while the primary school headteacher and the deputy should have a basic degree. The proposal was however backed down after many candidates failed to meet the requirement.

Since 2014, teachers’ unions have been at the forefront demanding that teachers who have achieved required academic qualification be given promotions. But TSC has ruled out attainment of higher qualifications as the only criterion for promotion.