The fate of more than 7,000 tutors in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions hangs in the balance as two government ministries tussle over where they should be domiciled.

The tutors, who left the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for absorption in the Public Service Commission (PSC) in 2018 have stagnated in one job group for the last two years as the ministries of Education and Public Service wrangle over whom they should report to.

Also roped in the confusion is the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) where the trainers were initially supposed to be hosted but plans changed when donors cut off funds. While their colleagues who remained with TSC have climbed the ladder from job group L to either N or P with more than Sh25,000 pay increment, TVET trainers have stagnated on the same job group of L with the same salary and allowances.

Pays salaries

Ironically, the payslips of the trainers are issued by PSC, meaning that it pays their salaries, but whenever any of them attains retirement, it is the TSC that processes their gratuity and pension.

“Our fate has never been defined as we remain unsure whether we fall under TSC or PSC. The whole situation has remained clouded in confusion ever since 2020,” one of the tutors, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter told People Daily.

As a result of the standoff between the ministries of Education and Public Service, the trainers have remained without a scheme of service that ought to have been designed and implemented in 2020 when their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with TSC came to an end.

The tutors are being treated with such disdain at a time the government is laying much emphasis on the role of TVET in the country’s technological development. Enrolment in TVET institutions has grown five times over the last three years with many students opting to join the middle level colleges instead of universities.

The tutors were transferred from TSC to PSC on July 1,  2018 under a new scheme hinged on competency-based training.

In its circular number 17 of 2018, TSC transferred technical training functions to the Ministry of Education.

The circular stated that the transfers would affect tutors in polytechnics, technical institutes and vocational training colleges. At the time, TVET director Dr Kevit Desai said flexible recruitment and promotion criteria for trainers was part of the ministry’s effort to create independent structures to promote quality training.

The development meant that the trainers would fall under a new remuneration regime. A diploma holder hired by TVET would join job group J with a salary of between Sh27,680 and Sh32,920.Degree holders would join job group K, attracting a salary of between Sh34,110 and Sh44,750.

Under the new scheme, TVET trainers would only be required to present their highest qualifications to be hired or promoted.Once put on the PSC payroll, TVET tutors would have enjoyed different terms of service different from the ones they previously worked under together with their colleagues in primary and secondary schools.

At the heart of the discord was a failure by TSC to allegedly recognise TVET training qualifications. Teachers who wanted to progress in their careers would be locked out of teaching practice. It was claimed that a trainer who scored C- in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and enrolled in TVET for higher diploma could not be in the TSC payroll.

Before the transfer, the trainers used to be sourced, retained and promoted by TSC.Contacted for comment, Education Principal Secretary Dr Julius Jwan could only say the matter is being addressed as he promised to issue a comprehensive statement.

But the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) Akelo Misori urged the government to expedite the formulation of a scheme of service for the tutors.

“The issue has been pending for quite some time and the sooner it is addressed the better. It is very unfortunate that the tutors have been stagnant in one job group while their colleagues who remained under TSC have continued to benefit from CBA,” Misori said.

Budget allocation

To compound matters for the tutors, they neither belong to any trade union to fight for them after they were removed from both KUPPET and Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU).

Early this year, had proposed that the costs related to hiring TVET staff be completely withdrawn from TSC and instead transferred to PSC which would bear the cost of hiring TVET tutors.

This, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, is to ensure no allocation of hiring TVET tutors comes to TSC because not all benefits were completely transferred.The MPs’ proposal meant that TSC would only receive a budget allocation for hiring teachers and interns.