Fresh details have emerged that Teachers Service Commission is planning for a review the initial 2021-2025 CBA proposal, which it had earlier on submitted to the SRC. TSC sent its counter CBA salary proposal of between 16 to 32 per cent to the SRC on September 29^th 2020.

However, after the SRC job evaluation report and the Naivasha retreat between TSC and KUPPET, details  emerged of a plan by TSC to review its counter proposal upwards. According to the sources, the teachers’ employer plans to push the counter proposal to between 20 and 35 per cent. Just like the previous proposal, this planned proposal review is geared towards favouring the classroom teacher.

“Kuppet and TSC have developed a new Job Description capturing the true worth of a classroom teacher. The new descriptions recognise the teachers’ leadership and technical work within and outside classroom, which had been ignored by the evaluation tool previously used by SRC,” reads a statement released Kuppet one month ago.

It has also emerged that Kuppet is pushing for classroom teachers to get higher pay as the present job evaluation favoured administrators.This is after TSC and KUPPET agreed last month  that there are up to 30 new roles of classroom teachers including class management and substantial financial responsibility during outdoor activities like tours and sports.

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The statement resonates with the SRC report which disclosed that the last job evaluation was skewed, favouring school heads while leaving classroom teachers broke.

The report shows the present job descriptions of the classroom teachers, based on the 2016/2017 evaluation, grossly undervalued their worth, resulting in poor pay.

“There were significant disparities in the compensation and career progression between the institutional administrators and classroom teachers in the teaching profession as the job evaluation results for 2016/2017 did not adequately cater for the remuneration of classroom teachers. This might be attributed to poor development of job descriptions in 2016,” reads the report.

The good news for classroom teachers however is that results of the 2021/2022 – 2021/2025 remuneration review cycle, which will be used to negotiate the next phase of teachers’ salaries now captures their true worth and outlines an elaborate job description.

The new job evaluation also recognises classroom teachers’ new tasks under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), which also gives them supervisory roles.

The statement by Kuppet on delay on tabling a counter offer by SRC dashed hopes of thousands of teachers who hoped that the meeting would yield some hope for the talks.

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The meeting agreed that promotion of C3 teachers and Teachers Training Colleges tutors be addressed.

This as it emerged that job re-evaluation has resulted in the creation of a new opening in C4 for Senior Master IV and Senior Lecturer IV for those in TTCs who do not have administrative positions.

“At the moment, the Commission has advertised 6,680 vacancies for these cadres as the first step towards institutionalizing C4 as a promotional grade from C3,” said Misori.

The Kuppet statement further said that under the CBC, the TTC tutors will be training teachers at diploma level hence the repositioning of their roles.

“Administrators in TTCs including deans and registrars will have career path with substantive appointments,” reads the statement.

The meeting also addressed the diploma teachers career path. It emerged that when the 2016 CBA commenced, more than half of teachers who had joined service at Job Group J had obtained bachelors of education degrees and transited to graduate scheme of service.

Kuppet also said that TSC agreed to suspend the requirements of Master’s degree for principals or other promotions within the teaching service.

The teachers’ service commission, TSC, has confirmed that it is in final stage of CBA negotiation with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC, and that teachers should expect a payrise beginning July this year.

Through a writing, the commission has warned the Kenya national union of teachers, KNUT to stop peddling allegations against it and allow it to successfully conclude talks with SRC.

“The Commission is in the process of concluding internal consultations with SRC as per the law to pave way for the negotiations. In the meantime, we ask you to be patient and avoid unfounded allegations on the matter,” reads part of the letter.

The counter proposal for the 2021-2025 CBA that TSC submitted to SRC awarded teachers at least 16% increment in basic salary for teachers. The 2021-2025 CBA is expected to be effective from July 2021.

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The new CBA is expected to bridge the gap between school administrators and ordinary teachers, especially those in lower cadres of each job group.

Should the new CBA be implemented as promised, the basic salaries of teachers in job groups C4 – D5 will increase by between 16-24% while that of teachers in job groups B5 – C3 will increase by between 25-32 %. The lowest job groups in both brackets will get the highest percentage increment.

The TSC 2021-2025 CBA counter proposal that is being negotiated with SRC also proposes a 20% increase in house allowances, commuter and leave allowances. SRC has however maintained that no increase will be made on the allowances due to the ballooning wage bill.

The teachers unions KNUT and KUPPET had however opposed the 2021 – 2025 TSC CBA counter proposals, which were unanimously accepted by most of the teachers they represent. KNUT proposes 102 – 200 % increment on basic salaries while KUPPET advocates for 30 – 70 %. As things are however, it seems like the negotiations between TSC and SRC are ongoing.