Teachers employed by the Board of Management and the non-teaching staff face payment uncertainty as the government is reluctant on releasing funds to schools.
However, teachers in primary, secondary, technical colleges, and teacher training colleges employed by the government will enjoy their salaries as usual, at least for now.
Learning institutions were closed in March after the first case of coronavirus was recorded in the country and closed to 320,000 teachers under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) payroll are retreated home.
Several TSC teachers had expressed their fears about their salaries could be a subject of interest for the government, but their employer (TSC) has put their worry to rest by confirming that they should not worry about their salary.
“As of now, there is no plan to stop paying teachers. This is because it is not the teacher who has refused to go to class. Schools are closed due to the Covid-19. If the teacher is called upon to resume teaching, they will do so the following day, so long as conditions are right,” said Beatrice Wababu, TSC Director of Communications.
According to Wababu, the TSC cannot penalize teachers for a problem they did not create until it is decided otherwise.
From records, TSC spends Sh20.6 billion a month to pay teachers in public schools, bringing the annual cost in salaries to Sh247.2 billion.
During the same period, teachers will receive their medical cover by AON Minet
The Chairperson of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA), Kani Indimuli said teachers are ready to go back to class any time and they should not be victimized.
“If the situation changes now, teachers will go back to class. So we should not be punished for a problem we did not create,” Mr. Indimuli said.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said teachers are protected by the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) they have with the TSC and it should be respected.
“Our focus now should be on looking at ways on how to improve infrastructure in our schools and other measures to fight Covid-19 in readiness to reopen. UNESCO and WHO, in their advisories for reopening schools across the world, have called for the protection of teachers’ salaries,” Sossion said.
As teachers will receiving their full allowances, parents who paid a whole year’s fees were worried a lot after this year’s learning was scrapped off.
But Education CS gave the parents some relief after he instructed the school management to agreed on what should be done to the paid fees already paid.
“Let BoMs agree with parents who had paid fees for the second and third term and see whether the money can be refunded or carried forward to next year,” Prof Magoha said.
First Term Tranche
Indimuli and Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association (KEPSHA) chairman Nicholas Gatemia confirmed the first tranche of capitation that covers 50 percent of the total government funds, was sent to schools the last term.
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“The first disbursement was done. But not the second and third. We request the government to release the second because schools are not just about children. Schools are also employers, they employ BoM teachers and other non-teaching staff,” Indimuli said.
Indimuli added that most schools had not paid BOM teachers since March. He urged the government to hold the tuition fees but disburse the rest of the money so that schools to pay their bills.
Indimuli also called on the government to let school principals, BoMs and parents to sort the issue with school fees. According to him, refunding school fees is not practicable.
