Teachers Reject the Pay Increment and Demand this Immediately

Teachers Reject the Pay Increment and Demand this Immediately

Teachers Reject the Pay Increment and Demand this Immediately. The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have angrily rejected this plan after President William Ruto announced a pay raise for all public employees. They contend that rather than adopting the President’s proposed wage increase, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should uphold the conditions of the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for teachers.

These teacher unions push for a methodically planned strategy that advantages their members in particular job categories when determining appropriate compensation increases. Their suggested wage increases range from 30% to 70%, with the lowest paid instructors receiving a 30% boost and the highest paid obtaining a 70% hike. This is in sharp contrast to President Ruto’s proposal, which called for a pay increase of only 7 to 10%.

For background, the ambitious pay adjustments were already specified in the 2021-2025 CBA. For instance, Kuppet wanted to reinstate a two-year-old agreement that would have increased the lowest-paid teachers’ pay from Ksh 34,955 to Ksh 59,425 per year. The teachers’ unions also pushed for a raise in the highest pay bracket from Ksh 118,242 to Ksh 153,715 as part of the same accord.

The unions stress that teachers have been fighting for the perks outlined in the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement for two years.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers’ Secretary-General, Collins Oyuu, responded by expressing the union’s resolve to see that the Teachers Service Commission complies with teachers’ demands, particularly as the nation moves to Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) under the new curriculum. Oyuu also applauded President Ruto’s recent announcement and saw it as a potential driver for bolstering the CBA for 2021–2025.

In a related event, the Teachers Service Commission announced 20,000 teaching job openings across the nation in response to the current teacher shortage. In order to address the staffing issues in schools, 18,000 of these posts are designated for interns, while the remaining 2,000 offer permanent and pensionable work.