Over the years, teachers have been spending a lot of time on the roads protesting for better payment from the government. Luckily for them, the Kenyan National Union of Teachers (KNUT) had a hard yet successful fight in regards to the increment of the teacher’s pay. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission agreed on increasing the salaries in three different phases.
Finally, the implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission will bring to an end the “solidarity forever for the union makes us strong” chants that the tutors have been taking on the streets now and then.
New TSC salaries and grading system
Here is the breakdown of the new TSC salaries and grading system for teachers.
The current TSC upgrading of teachers led to the scrapping off of some job groups and merging of others. Under the new system of grading tutors, the grade that was previously known as P1, which was under Job Group G, was scrapped off and replaced with Grade B5. This grade was designated as the new entry grade for all tutors at the primary school level.
The other grades that followed were re-structured and re-named as follows:
J to C1
K to C2
L to C3
M to C4
N to C5
Apart from job groups J to N, there was another rank that belonged to the higher band which was designated as P, Q and R. These three were later renamed to:
P to D1
Q to D2
R to D3
The Kenyan National Union of Teachers requested for an additional job groups S and T, which the commission granted. Under the new grading, the two categories were named D4 and D5, respectively. The chief principals now fall under category D5 of the new grading system.
TSC designation code for teachers
After the Salaries and Remuneration Commission undertook the job evaluation exercise, a new grading system was introduced. The grading offered new job groups for teachers, and below are the designation codes for each category.
Grade B5 (T-Scale 5) – Primary Educator II
Grade C1(T-Scale 6) – Primary Teacher I, Secondary teacher II, and lecturer III
Grade C2 (T-Scale 7) – Secondary Educator II, Senior Educator II, Lecturer II, and Special Need Education Educator (for primary schools)
Grade C3 (T-Scale 8) – Secondary Educator I, Special Need Education Teacher I (for primary schools), Lecturer I, Senior Teacher I, and Special Need Education Educator II (for secondary schools)
GradeC4 (T-Scale 9) – Senior Master IV, Special Need Education Senior Teacher (for primary schools), Senior Lecturer IV, Deputy Head Educator II and Special Need Education Teacher I (for secondary schools)
GradeC5 (T-Scale 10) – Senior Master III, Deputy Principal IV, Senior Lecturer III, Deputy Head Teacher, Head Educator, and Curriculum Support Officer II.
Grade D1(T-Scale 11) – Deputy Principal III, Senior Master II, Senior Lecturer II, Curriculum Support Officer I, and Senior Head Educator.
Grade D2 (T-Scale 12) – Senior Master I and Deputy Principal II
Grade D3 (T-Scale 13) – Deputy Principal I and Principals
Grade D4 (T-Scale 14) – Senior Principals
Grade D5 (T-Scale 15) – Chief Principals.
TSC new salary scale for teachers
According to the TSC salaries circular released, the Teachers Service Commission will enumerate the pay rise of different tutors according to their job groups for both the primary and secondary school tutors. The Kenyan teachers’ new salary scale will be effected on job groups ranging from H, J, K, L, M, and N.
Since the signing of the Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2016, the implementation of the three-phase cycle has been in progress, and it is currently at its third phase as per the TSC CBA implementation schedule.
Other than elongating the TSC salary scale for trainers in the Teacher-Scale 13, T-scale 12, and T-scale 9, the commission has also revised some of the allowances such as commuter, hardship, and annual leave. However, all the other subsidies will remain unchanged.
New salary structure for teachers in Kenya.
In this 3rd phase, Henry Rotich, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, stated that a total of three billion Kenyan shillings had been allocated. This amount will cater for new recruitment, recurrent expenditure as well as the implementation of this 3rd CBA phase. Below is the TSC salary scale per job group according to the KNUT latest news on teachers pay as per the third phase of the CBA:
Chief Principal – Ksh. 165, 089 (minimum), and Ksh. 200, 928 (maximum)
Senior Principal – Ksh. 143,748 (minimum) Ksh. 174,270 (maximum)
Principal GAT I – Ksh. 129,527 (minimum) Ksh. 155,894 (maximum)
Principal GAT II – Ksh. 80,190 (minimum) Ksh. 97,290 (maximum)
Senior GAT – Ksh. 69,590 (minimum) Ksh. 83,840 (maximum)
GAT I – Ksh. 61,910 (minimum) Ksh. 71,880 (maximum)
GAT II – Ksh. 46,020 (minimum) Ksh. 56,590 (maximum)
GAT III – Ksh. 34,662 (minimum) Ksh. 39,918 (maximum)
ATS IV – Ksh. 28,323 (minimum) Ksh. 33,662 (maximum)
P1 – Ksh. 25,692 (minimum) Ksh. 30,304 (maximum).
Some of the tutors will have to walk home empty-handed since their increment was concluded during the first two phases of CBA implementation. Secondary school tutors under the current job group C2, formerly known as job group K with a Bachelor’s Degree in education or any other of its equivalent, will not be receiving any pay rise during this 3rd phase.
It means that the TSC job group k salary scale remains at a minimum of Ksh. 34, 955, and a maximum of Ksh. 43, 694.
Similarly, some secondary school teachers salary in Kenya will not be affected as they belong to the non-increment group for the third phase. The other categories of trainers whose salary increment was only scheduled for the 1st and 2nd phase are:
Secondary school tutors with a Diploma in Education (grade C1)
Primary tutors at job group B5.
