Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has voiced concern over non- promotion of over 50,000 teachers across the board who have stagnated for a long time.
During a meeting with the teachers’ employer in the country; Teachers` Service Commission (TSC) in Naivasha on Thursday, the union petitioned the Government to release Sh1billion to TSC for urgent promotion of 30,000 teachers who are part of the 50,000 who have stagnated for a long time.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General (SG) Maurice Akelo Misori said the priority group will be the current C4 and C5 teachers who will move to C5 and D1 respectively, in order to open up opportunities for long-serving teachers who are still stuck in Grade C3.
“Some 7,400 teachers on C4 were also left out of the 2023-2024 promotions allegedly because they had served in the current grade for less than three years. However, the grade was opened to them only two years ago following KUPPET lobbying, after they had stagnated in C3 and the previous Job Group L for many years and these too need to be promoted,” Misori said.
Specifically, KUPPET proposed the abolition of Teacher Scale C5 for post-primary teachers, so that teachers will move from C4 into senior administration. The union also proposed the opening up of non-administrative positions for senior teachers at D4, even if they do not become school principals.
The KUPPET officials were speaking to the media in Naivasha after their meeting with the TSC whose main agenda was the resolution of the outcry from teachers over the recent promotions and the fate of over 50,000 teachers who have stagnated in their careers.
Misori said during the meeting, the TSC committed to employ 20,000 new teachers for Junior Secondary and 2,000 primary school teachers in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) areas within this financial year after the union raised concern over understaffing in public schools. TSC will also in January 2025, convert all the 26,000 intern teachers recruited in 2023 to permanent and pensionable terms.
The KUPPET Secretary General also petitioned the teachers’ employer to urgently confirm the Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers and include the teachers who are currently operating in the dark, in the new teacher Career Guidelines.
The TSC on its part also agreed to the union’s demand to review the Career Progression Guidelines that have contributed to stagnation among teachers and to develop new career Guidelines through public participation. The union noted that the new Guidelines will fasten career growth by reducing the length of time taken from the lowest to the highest scale within the service.
On the issue of the recent promotions of teachers which raised hue and cry even by their Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) counterparts, KUPPET said they had scrutinised the entire list and found that the promotions by TSC were above board. There were allegations that the promotions were not fair and that some teachers who had retired or died had been promoted in unclear circumstances.
In secondary schools, KUPPET demanded the conversion of all Board of Management (BOM) teachers into TSC employment, since the teachers are filling a gap created by the Commission’s slow employment and that these teachers were poorly paid by their institutions; they had no medical care and could not be disciplined by the Commission yet they are serving in public institutions. To this end, the Commission expressed a willingness to manage the BOM teachers if funds are made available.
The union lobbied the employer over the high number of teachers acting in administrative positions without any compensation, but the parties did not agree on the compensation of teachers on acting appointments as TSC claimed that acting positions were abolished by Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Circulars, and therefore were not compensable.
KUPPET maintained that the teacher employer was violating the law by using acting administrators and not compensating them and noted that the union’s legal team will consider instituting a legal demand to let the court pronounce itself on compensation for acting appointments.
KUPPET demanded the immediate implementation of new Group Life Cover, Group Personal Accident Cover and Work Injury Benefits (WIBA) insurance for teachers as part of the medical scheme and the Commission on its part committed to procure for the services within this financial year.
KUPPET also appealed to the Commission on bureaucratic delays in processing pensions for retired teachers where the commission stated that it was working jointly with the Department of Pensions on administrative action to quicken the pension processes.
The union on its part committed to work with Parliament in amending the People Living with Disability Act which requires teachers living with disabilities to renew certificates every five years.
By Mabel Keya Shikuku
