Uncertainty is hanging over the promotion of 40,000 teachers who have acquired higher academic qualifications over the last four years.
It is also unclear whether pursuit of higher academic qualifications will determine the promotion for teachers to administrative positions.
This is after the Teachers Service Commission reneged on its earlier promise and issued fresh guidelines that emphasise performance over academic qualifications in regard to promotion.
“Under the new arrangements, no teacher will be promoted based on the academic qualifications,” TSC boss Nancy Macharia told MPs on Tuesday.
“We carried out a job evaluation with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and agreed that promotion be based solely on work done rather than mere academic papers. You will be paid for your job worthiness and nothing less.”
The declaration had dampened the enthusiasm of thousands of teachers who went back to class with the hope that their pursuit for higher academic qualifications would propel their career progression.
In December last year, Macharia announced that secondary school principals and their deputies will be required to have a master’s degree in education in new staffing changes.
Primary school headteachers and their deputies would be required to have a minimum of a first degree in education.
The radical policy shift sparked off a scramble for degrees by teachers keen on safeguarding their jobs or earning a promotion.
Fearing a backclash, the TSC through its head of communications Kihumba Kamotho on Thursday urged teachers to pursue higher education.
“This is to assure teachers that higher qualifications will certainly count in their career progression depending on the vacancies and professional or academic requirement for each grade and/or position,” Kamotho said in a statement.
Kihumba said higher qualifications including bachelors and Master’s degrees will be a requirement for appointment of teachers to administrative positions.
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Teachers in administration roles include; curriculum support officers, heads of institutions (principals and head teachers), deputy principals, deputy head teachers, senior teachers and senior masters.
The confusion at TSC continued even as the commission seems to flip-flop on the promotion of 40,000 teachers who have attained higher qualifications.
There is pressure from teachers’ unions to effect the pending promotions.
On February 15, Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion wrote to Education CS Amina Mohamed asking for the promotion of teachers with higher qualifications.
"We hereby reinstate the dispute regarding failure by TSC to recognise and compensate teachers who have attained higher relevant academic qualifications for promotions and salary increments dating back to 2014,” Sossion said.
TSC requires more than Sh4.2 billion to elevate primary and secondary school tutors who have enhanced their education since 2014.
The commission was set to open up promotions for this category of teachers with new diplomas, degrees and Master’s qualifications after freezing the elevations in 2013.
The commission is said to have submitted a supplementary budget to the Treasury to cater for the pending promotions.
Under the new guidelines, teachers are considering backdating the promotions to the date of one’s graduation.
Only teachers who submitted their academic testimonials to TSC between January 28, 2014, and December 31, 2017, will benefit from the elevation planned to start once Parliament approves a request for additional funds.
The promotions will see some 22,000 teachers who have attained diploma qualifications elevated from Job Group H-now graded as B5-to Job Group J [C1].
These were P1 teachers in the initial Job Group G which was scrapped.
Last year, a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement between teachers' unions and TSC abolished the old grading system and moved to Job Group H, which is known as B5.
In the mass promotions, it will cost TSC a total of Sh1.85 billion annually, for this group alone, with each teacher under this category set to earn Sh7,000 more monthly.
The teachers’ employer will also spend Sh1.68 billion each year to promote some 10,000 teachers who have graduated with bachelor’s degrees.
Each teacher under this category ranked as Job Group H [B5] will now move to Job Group K [C2] with an additional take-home of Sh14,000 per a month.
This lot includes hundreds of P1 and non-graduate teachers who rushed to class to further their studies.
TSC will also move teachers in the normal cadres of Job Group J[C1] to Job Group K[C2]at a total cost of Sh672 million per year.
This lot involves about 7,000 graduate teachers who have taught for at least three years and who automatically qualify for promotion. It will cost TSC Sh8,000 per teacher each month.
Some 1,000 graduate teachers who have attained Master’s qualifications who are in Job Group K[C2] will also have their salaries enhanced by Sh4,000 each monthly.
The TSC is expected to avail Sh48 million per year to fund the promotion of teachers under this group.
Under the current salary scale for teachers, a tutor grade B5 (former Job Group H) earns between Sh21,756 and Sh27,195 while C1 (Group J) take home Sh27,195 to Sh33,994.
The good news is that the commission will backdate the adjustments from the time the teachers graduated and not when they presented their higher qualification details to their employer.
This is sweet news for teachers who have endured the long wait for promotion after rushing to class for higher academic qualifications so they could earn better salaries.
The TSC in July 2013 froze the promotion of teachers as a result of limited budgetary allocations and due to exhaustion of available vacancies after a high number of teachers pursued higher qualifications.
The commission in 2014 announced the resumption of the promotions that would have seen salaries for the affected teachers adjusted. However, the promotions were delayed because of lack of enough funds.
“These should be done for all cases received by the commission as at January 8, 2014. The effective date for all the promotions shall be with effect from October 1, 2014, irrespective of the date of graduation,” TSC had said in a circular dated August 13, 2014,
There has been a mad rush by teachers seeking higher qualifications after TSC last year announced that the commission will consider degrees in promotion of primary and secondary schools heads and their deputies.
Under the career progression guidelines developed by the Commission after signing the CBA with teachers’ unions last year, primary head teachers and their deputies must have
a minimum of a first degree in education.
Their secondary colleagues will be required to possess a Master’s degree in education. That's a policy shift that saw teachers rush to universities to secure their jobs or earn promotions.
There are about 23,000 heads in public primary schools and about 8,600 in secondary.
There is a dispute registered with the Labour ministry by Knut which wants teachers with higher academic qualifications promoted.