The Kenya National Union of Teachers has given the Teachers Service Commission 14 days to review the Collective Bargaining Agreement signed in 2021.

Knut secretary general Collin Oyuu said with the high cost of living pushed by the Finance Act 2023, teachers need a good salary.

“We have written a letter to the TSC and I have given them 14 days to bring us to the table so that we can start reviewing the monetary CBA that we signed in 2021,” Oyuu said.

“We must not forget that the economic situation is so biting that we have to sit again so that there is something on the table for the teachers.”

He said the Salaries Remuneration Commission had prevented Knut from negotiating anything relating to salaries signed in 2021.

However, now that it has lifted the caveat on negotiations, the union seeks to sit down with the commission and open the way for dialogue.

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“We congratulate TSC for launching the 2023-2027 strategic plan. The over Sh70 billion to be used by TSC in rolling out the strategic plan is very welcome as it was clear that it will be used in other areas apart from teachers’ salaries,” Oyuu said.

He said Knut was ready to push TSC to the table so that teachers’ salaries are also considered in the strategic plan.

“Earlier, TSC came up with a proposal of Sh2 billion for teachers’ allowances, which is welcome, although the National Treasury reduced it to Sh1 billion. We still want our TSC to sit with us and reopen the way for negotiations,” Oyuu said.

The secretary general said a well paid teacher is an effective teacher.

“A poorly paid teacher cannot perform. If the government wants performance, we will reopen the negotiations of the salary component that we missed in 2021,” he said.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has faulted the Teachers Service Commission for the delay in posting teachers to Junior Secondary Schools.

Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu said no learning has been going on a week after Junior Secondary School learners reported to their schools.

He asked the Ministry of Education to ensure textbooks are delivered to the schools as promised by the government.

Oyuu, who spoke in Kisumu, said only a few teachers had reported to some schools and were struggling to cope with a large number of learners.

“A week is not a short time in the learning process, the learners have lost several hours. I have visited several schools where learning has not been taking place.

“TSC keeps saying teachers have been posted to the schools but where are the teachers?” asked Oyuu.

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The learners in junior secondary schools reported to their respective schools on January 30 but learning is yet to begin in several schools.

“We have a deficit of 120,000 teachers in our schools and it is time TSC ensured more teachers are hired to avoid disruption of learning,” said Oyuu.

Mr Oyuu asked the TSC to release teachers’ transfer letters to enable them to relocate to their home counties.

He said the transfer letters had already been dispatched to TSC regional offices but the officials were yet to release them to the teachers to enable them to move to their new stations.

“TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia confirmed that letters had been dispatched to the regional headquarters. Regional directors of education should release the transfer letters to the teachers to enable them to move to their new stations,” said Oyuu in Kisumu on Friday.

He said teachers had diligently applied online to be relocated to the new stations as directed by the TSC.

“One of the challenges the TSC has faced is the transfer of those in administrative positions due to lack of vacancies but we have given TSC time to assess the situation regarding school heads and deputies before they are transferred,” said Oyuu.

He said the union had anticipated that all teachers who had requested to be transferred to their home counties would be transferred by the end of January but that is yet to happen.

Head teachers across the country will have to wait longer before they are transferred back to their home counties even after the government ended the delocalisation policy.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) urged the more than 10,000 head teachers to be patient as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) arranges for their transfers.

“In our collective bargaining agreement, we told TSC to repeal the delocalisation policy, and the working environment of the teacher should be one that the professional feels comfortable in to maximise productivity. Families must be brought as close as possible,” said Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu.

Speaking during the ongoing Kenya Primary Schools Headteachers Association (Kepsha) conference at Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Primary School in Mombasa, Mr Oyuu said that although the policy has been scrapped, challenges remain.

“If there is no vacancy where you came from, it will be difficult for TSC to take you back,” said Mr Oyuu. “We are moving very fast to have our heads who were delocalised accommodated back in their former sub-counties or counties.”

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He said more than 1,000 head teachers were transferred under the policy. “It was a silent death for our teachers.”

The head teachers, led by Kepsha National Chairman Johnson Nzioka, said the abolishment of delocalisation was the best decision.

National Assembly Committee on Education chairman Julius Melly said: “Delocalisation is a policy that we discarded as a Kenya Kwanza government, it is not debatable and we will not reverse it. I thank TSC because they have started to reverse it. Teachers can now be reunited with their families.”

Mr Melly said that while the Teachers Service Code states that teachers can work anywhere in the country, they should not be forced to go against their will.

In hardship areas, especially the North Eastern region, the MP, who is a former teacher, urged county governments to provide teachers a conducive environment to work.

“In hardship areas, we talked about affirmative action. In the last Parliament we talked to TSC to promote even diploma teachers in leadership positions so that we retain them there,” he said.

AIC Tinderet Primary School head teacher Nicholas Mutai said his family was affected by the policy when his wife was transferred from their home county.

“My wife was transferred from Nandi to Kericho,” he said.

Mr Mutai cannot wait to be reunited with his wife in January as she is currently seeking a transfer.

Kenyans are likely to pay higher in taxes if government adopts a fresh proposal by KNUT to introduce a new education levy targeting to finance public education.

KNUT’s proposal was submitted to the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) on Wednesday 16.

The proposal is likely to draw strong reaction from a public which is already heavily taxed.

According to KNUT secretary-general Collins Oyuu, the current money allocated to education is inadequate and all working Kenyans should be deducted an unspecified fraction of their earnings for the education kitty.

Oyuu urged the PWPER to work out the final details of how such a levy would be operationalised. He further said that it could adopt the fuel, insurance and hotels levy model.

“The problem, even with Competency Based Curriculum is funding. The funds should be channelled to an independent body with a national board of 11 representatives from the regions. The board should have representations from teachers, Unions and parents and should have management at the county level.” said Oyuu.

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Additionally, Oyuu claimed that the capitation to schools should not be uniform but rather dependent on the social-economic background of where schools are located.

He spoke at the Knut headquarters in Nairobi when union officials hosted the team that was led by its chair Prof Raphael Munavu.

Education financing was also at the heart of the presentation by the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (Kuppet) before the working party.

The union proposed an increase of the budgetary allocation to the education sector to be raised from the current 25.9 per cent of the national budget to about 30 per cent.

“This suggestion will meet a ready response from the government, that several other sectors are competing for those funds. Well, such mechanical responses don’t take into account the massive contribution of the education sector to this country,” said the secretary-general of Kuppet, Akello Misori.