Teachers have been spared a salary cut as the Covid-19 pandemic rendered the 2020 academic year untenable, even as several industries such as aviation forcing staff to take as much as 75% pay reductions.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on Wednesday, July 8, confirmed that teachers would continue earning their full salaries and allowances for the nine months they will stay out of class.
Defending the decision, TSC Director of Communications Beatrice Wababu explained that lack of a school calendar for the better part of 2020 was not the teachers' fault since they were ready to return to work.
“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,” stated Wababu.
With the decision, the state is poised to continue paying out Ksh20.6 billion in monthly salaries besides a medical cover of Ksh12 billion.
The total number of teachers employed by TSC exceeds 320,000, all who retreated to their homes in March 2020 when the Ministry of Education ordered schools closed to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Kahi Indimuli, the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) chairman, stated that teachers were ready to return to class.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion, on the other hand, noted that teachers were protected by the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) and the focus needed to be on improving school infrastructure.
“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,” stated Sossion.
This came after Education CS George Magoha ordered public schools to refund prepaid fees for the second and third terms while directing private schools to reach an agreement with the parents on how to use the school fees that were already paid.
KESSHA chair Indimuli, however, noted that the refund was not possible as the schools would have to reach an agreement with parents.
“Refunding fees is not practicable. We have always worked together with parents and I am sure we can agree on this,” he stated.
Another cluster of workers who had their workload reduced after the pandemic hit the country include civil servants aged 58 years and above as well as those with underlying conditions who were ordered to work from home by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The order cut across all arms of government including the executive.
