Teachers yesterday scored big after their unions struck a deal with their employer that effectively raises their salaries by 9.5 per cent.

The new pay will also be backdated to July 1, meaning they will get a sweetener once the increment is factored into their salaries later this week.

Yesterday’s deal was struck between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on the one hand and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) and Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (Kusnet) on the other.

Under the reviewed salary, a primary school teacher at the entry grade of B5 will now earn a basic salary of between Sh22,793 and Sh28,491 in the 2023/24 financial year. This will then increase to between Sh23,830 to Sh29,787 in the 2024/25 financial year.

Former municipalities

Additionally, teachers in the B5 grade will earn a house allowance of Sh6,750 for those in Nairobi, while those in Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi and Kitale will earn Sh4,500. Those in other former municipalities and all rural areas will get Sh3,850.

Graduate teachers in grade C2 will earn between Sh36,621 and Sh45,776 as basic pay in the current financial year, and this will increase further to between Sh38,286 and Sh47,858 from June next year.

Grade C2 teachers will be paid a house allowance of Sh16,500 for those in Nairobi. Those in Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi, Kitale will get Sh12,800. Their counterparts in other former municipalities and rural areas will get an equal house allowance of Sh9,600. The highest-paid teachers — at grade D5 — will earn between Sh131,380 and Sh159,534 in the current financial. This will be increased to Sh162,539 in the 2024/25 financial year.

Further, they will earn a house allowance of Sh50,000 for those in Nairobi. Those in Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi and Kitale will get Sh35,000. Their colleagues in other former municipalities will get Sh25,000 while those in rural areas will get Sh21,508.

“The new salary structure shall be implemented immediately in the August payroll and arrears backdated to 1st July 2023. We assure teachers that they will get their pay by the end of the month,” TSC boss Macharia said after the talks.

Improve terms

TSC and the unions also held negotiations to improve the terms and conditions of teachers, which culminated in the promotion of teachers as a way to motivate them.

“As a result of these bipartisan engagements, the commission has concluded the promotion of 14,738 teachers in August 2023 and has advertised additional 36,275 vacancies for promotion,” Macharia said. “The objective of these promotions is to motivate teachers as they advance in their career to improve productivity.”

Secondary school teachers are the greatest beneficiaries of the new salaries announced yesterday.

Welcoming the raise, Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori noted that this will cushion members from taxes and the high cost of living currently being experienced in the country.

He said that his union had secured the promotion of approximately 50,000 teachers in this financial year to address stagnation. This was part of an agreement between the union and the National Assembly Committee on Education, which committed to providing resources to address the lack of career progression among teachers.

Supplementary budget

“Through Kuppet lobbying, Parliament has committed to provide more funds in the 2023/24 supplementary budget for the promotion of more teachers until the backlog of stagnating teachers is resolved,” Misori said.

He pledged to continue negotiating for harmonisation of house allowances among secondary school teachers to match Nairobi rates as is the case with commuter allowance.

Knut Secretary General Collins Oyuu, however, expressed displeasure with the teachers’ commission for only implementing a 10 per cent pay rise out of the union’s proposal of a 60 per cent increase in basic salary.

“I want to tell TSC that we are coming for the other 50 per cent,” Oyuu said. “The inflation rates across the country are almost equal to Nairobi; we have agreed with TSC that technical committees shall relook into the rates because placing it now would have meant other financial commitments.”

Oyuu told the TSC to continue reviewing the welfare of primary school teachers under the non-monetary agreement between the commission and the union, noting that some have been stuck in the same job groups for long.

“We want to appeal to the commission to promote more teachers especially those in the lower cadre of grade B5,” Oyuu said.

 However, he noted that Knut members in the lower grades of B5 and C4 got the highest increase compared to what they got in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement.

“This time around, we were committed to having a total invasion of beneficiaries, so that those who earned almost nothing in the last CBA (2017/21) will be the greatest beneficiaries,” he said.