Teachers won't act for more than six months without allowances— Knut

@alalmaurice

Teachers will not act for more than six months without being paid acting allowances, the Kenya National Union of Teachers boss has said.

Knut Secretary general Collins Oyuu said the Teachers Service Commission must pay teachers acting allowances.

“We want any teacher assigned a duty to act either as a head teacher or deputy in another school or his station, be paid acting allowance,” Oyuu said.

According to SG, the commission was re-assigning teachers duties in schools to act as heads or deputies, without compensating for their time in service.

For instance, he said there was a teacher who was assigned duties to act as a head teacher for three years before being absorbed without getting any allowances.

This, Oyuu added, was in total defiance of the Labour laws.

While speaking to the press in Kisumu on Thursday, he said TSC should pay such teachers responsibility allowances.

Oyuu said teachers should be promoted based on their qualification with or without the TSC having money to pay them as long as they qualify. “They can be paid later when money is available,” he said.

“The commission should not stop promotions on the basis that there is no money. Let TSC promote them, and pay them when they get the money," Oyuu said.

The calls come even as the TSC is preparing to implement automatic promotions for all qualified teachers to address the delays which have for years stagnated teachers in one job group.

Teachers, according to the commission, should be automatically promoted from their current employment categories to the next.

"Parliament should appropriate funds to fast-track promotion of teachers," Oyuu said.

Additionally, the salary of the teachers should rise as a result of the promotion.

To encourage and educate teachers, Oyuu said the automatic teachers' promotion programme is scheduled for a predefined period to test its sustainability.

Already, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia has confirmed that they are going to work hard in ensuring successful promotions. The method should be reviewed if it fails to work during the test trials, Oyuu said.

In the event it is successful, he noted that it will be a milestone towards preventing teacher’s stagnation in the same working category.

With the TSC having developed a new system of ranking, it places the educators in accordance with their efficiency, amount of time spent instructing. This is not limited to their level of expertise.

The approach is expected to be of benefit to teachers because it will save their time and ensure their rise in service.

Both the teacher’s commitment and their efforts at work will now be an important factor to be considered during promotion. Hardworking teachers will therefore be financially compensated.

Over the years, most teachers have been forced to do a lot of work over an extended period. But this had sparked discontent.

Now, the TSC automatic promotion programme is anticipated to take place after a given period to motivate teachers.

This will see them work with motivation and put in more effort and develop a stronger love for what they do due to the extrinsic motivation factors," Oyuu said.

On Tuesday, the National Education committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly, demanded details of claims by Knut on the number of teachers who have served for more than six months in acting capacity.

The MPs also wanted the union to give a detailed proposal that would guide the teachers' promotion.

Knut was also expected to give a detailed financial implication as well as teachers acting as heads of institutions, which they claimed did not benefit from salary hike. 

Oyuu said they were working with TSC to get the exact number of teachers.