TSc, Knut form team to resolve teachers’ promotions row

From left: Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion, chairman Mudzo Nzili and TSC chief executive officer Gabriel Lengoiboni after striking the deal on Wednesday. Photo/Denish Ochieng 

By MUGAMBI MUTEGI, pmutegi@ke.nationmedia.com

Posted  Wednesday, January 8  2014 at  20:57

In Summary

• Wednesday’s agreement came just days after Knut called off a planned strike over the promotions that TSC said had been frozen for lack of funds.
• TSC said it had received only Sh600 million out of the Sh4 billion it had requested from the Treasury for promotion of the 6,657 teachers.

A committee has been formed to determine the number of teachers whose promotions are overdue after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) yielded to pressure in a bid to forestall another nationwide strike.

The nine-member team, which comprises four members from Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the others from TSC – has two weeks to come up with a collated list.

“Both parties to constitute a joint technical committee to undertake verification exercise to determine the exact number of teachers affected by the pending promotions. All the current schemes of service in respect of promotions of teachers are to remain in force,” a joint statement released by TSC and Knut on Wednesday read.

The resolution was reached after day-long negotiations between the industrial partners who presented different counts of the deserving cases.

The union insists 53,000 teachers deserve promotions while the employer says only 6,657 teachers are eligible, meaning the job group and salary review would cost anything between Sh4 billion and Sh1.1 billion per year respectively.

The joint committee will audit the CVs and certificates of the affected teachers, after which the individuals who receive the green light will be promoted.

Wednesday’s agreement came just days after Knut called off a planned strike over the promotions that TSC said had been frozen for lack of funds.

TSC said it had received only Sh600 million out of the Sh4 billion it had requested from the Treasury for promotion of the 6,657 teachers.

The House Budget Committee also failed to provide Sh15.2 billion for the recruitment of 40, 000 teachers.

“The commission (TSC) is to consult with the relevant government agencies with a view of ensuring that the required funds to clear the promotions backlog is released to the commission,” the joint statement added.

The deal also binds the government to ensure promotions of teachers for subsequent years are catered for. The agreement comes after the government announced a freeze on appointments and salary adjustments for all public servants.

The Cabinet had on November 22 said the measure would help tame the high public wage bill. The public sector wage bill accounts for almost half of Kenya’s revenue collections, which are expected to hit Sh1 trillion this year.

This is not the first time that the government is going back to the drawing table to take care of teachers’ needs. In September 2012, it gave in to their demands for a pay increase following a protracted strike that paralysed learning countrywide.

The government agreed to pay teachers Sh13.5 billion in lump sum in October as opposed to phases and backdated it to July 1, 2012.

Mid last year, TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni said that they were not employing graduate teachers who had not attained the minimum C+ grade in their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam.