Teachers working in hardship areas have asked the government for a raft of improvements, including the enhancement of their allowances to reflect the rising cost of living.
Through their lobby, the Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (KETHAWA), they have asked the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in a letter to increase the allowance from 30 percent to 50 percent of their basic pay.
The association’s Secretary Wangoynya Wangenye told Nancy Macharia, the TSC chief executive, in the letter that the issue be included in the renegotiations of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Wangenye asked the commission and the unions to “negotiate and agree to increase hardship allowance payable to teachers in hardship and arid areas to at least fifty percent of teachers’ basic salary.”
Currently, the hardship allowance is pegged at 30 percent and the least paid— primary teacher II – of Grade B5 T-Scale 5 gets Sh6,000 per month for working in areas that are difficult to live in. The highest paid— a chief principal at grade D5 T-Scale 15— takes home Sh38,100 in hardship allowance monthly.
The government’s classification of hardship areas for teachers covers regions of limited access to essentials such as food, transport services, social amenities, insecurity and harsh weather conditions including floods, landslides and frequent drought.
Taking the allowance to 50 percent of basic salary would increase the payment by 67 percent, meaning the teachers getting Sh6,000 will grow to Sh10,020 while those earning Sh38,100 will climb to Sh63,627 before taxation of the allowance.
Kenyans across the board have been feeling the pinch of increasing food and essential commodity prices that have denied them access to items such as flour, soap, sugar, cooking oil, cooking gas, and vegetables whose prices have continued to rise, partly with the recent drought.
The William Ruto administration that came to power last September is struggling with a heated political debate about the high cost of living that has seen opposition politicians led by Azimio Party’s Raila Odinga return their supporters to the streets in protests against the unbearable economic condition.
The tutors have further asked their employer to set aside 30 percent of promotion slots for teachers in hardship areas. Through promotions, the teachers expect to get salary raises, but the enhanced pay also attracts a higher pay as you earn (PAYE) taxes that go up to a maximum of 30 percent.
According to KETHAWA, intern teachers should also be paid hardship allowance while the newly employed tutors posted to difficult regions ought to be allowed to apply for transfers within two years and not five years.
They have demanded listing of slum areas as hardship work stations, saying this should be done in “consultation with all other organisations and agencies for harmony and transparency” and their allowances backdated to when they reported to such harsh regions, said Wangenye.
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