TSC teachers to receive allowances in proposed regulation.
If a proposed bill establishing the benefits is passed, teachers may soon get allowances in addition to their wages.
MP Abdul Haro of Mandera South wants teachers to be paid in a variety of ways, including housing, commuting, hardship, and special duty allowances.
The MP also requests responsibility allowances for teachers who have administrative obligations in a bill that is currently before the National Assembly.
The proposed legislation states, “The commission shall pay house allowance to every teacher in its employment at a rate determined by the commission from time to time.”
“Until the case is decided, the commission shall pay the full house allowance to a teacher who is under interdiction and receiving half of their regular salary.”
Nonetheless, a teacher who is suspended or placed under interdiction is not eligible to receive commuting compensation.
Additionally, teachers who are assigned to a special school and are “skilled in special education” will receive special school allowances under the proposed law.
Should the plan pass, a teacher who is certified by the Disability Council as blind, deaf, dumb, or physically disabled will receive help allowances.
In addition to a transfer allowance for teachers transferred by the Teachers Service Commission from one county to another, Haro is also proposing a leave allowance to the teaching community.
According to the congressman, “the main goal of this bill is to amend the Teachers Service Commission Act, 2012 to provide for various allowances that the commission may pay to teachers in addition to their base pay.”
A teacher may be appointed by the TSC in an acting capacity for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 6 months, according to the proposed law.
“A teacher who does not meet all of the requirements listed above will not be appointed in an acting capacity. According to the bill, a teacher may only hold one position at a time.
A special duty allowance is granted to a teacher appointed in an acting role.
“Therefore, the bill offers consistency and predictability in the administration of allowances in the teaching profession.”
According to Haro, the allowances wouldn’t be pensionable.
Regarding the hardship allowance, he recommends that teachers assigned to a specified and gazetted hardship area receive it.
Gazetted hardship areas include portions of the following counties: Baringo, Garissa, Homa Bay, Isiolo, Kajiado, Kwale, Mandera, Kitui, Narok, Samburu, Taita Taveta, Tana River, Turkana, Wajir, and West Pokot.
In order to compensate for the difficult working conditions—which frequently include a shortage of electricity and water—a select group of instructors who work in the areas receive extra benefits per month, ranging from Sh6,500 to Sh36,000.
The proposed law aims to provide instructors designated to carry out administrative tasks above their pay grade with extra duty payments.
Haro is in favor of giving teachers stationed in arid and semi-arid regions special duty allowance.
The proposed law states that a teacher must give up their allowance in the event that they are freed of their administrative responsibilities, transferred outside the ASAL zones, or promoted to the grade appropriate for the position for which they were filling.
The proposed legislation would provide a responsibility allowance to senior instructors in Job Group K and below, heads of institutions and their deputies, and both.
“Where a teacher ceases to perform administrative responsibilities, the commission shall stop payment of responsibility allowance to the teacher,” the statement continues.
Regarding transfers, the bill states that a teacher who starts a transfer would not receive reimbursement from the TSC.
Given the proposed strict regulatory framework that aims to outlaw instructors from taking on any additional occupations, educators are severely struggling to make ends meet.
The government has already banned tuition, which includes remedial classes on the weekends and in the evenings.
The government is attempting to make it explicitly unlawful for teachers to provide or undertake holiday tuition through a proposed law put up by the teachers’ employer, TSC.
Additionally, teachers are to be prohibited from “engaging in other gainful employment while they are employees of the commission,” according to the panel led by Nancy Macharia.
The government outlawed holiday tuition in 2008 and reiterated the ban in 2016, although many institutions have continued to violate this policy.
Additionally, the TSC aims to penalize educators who engage in “fraudulent activities that violate legal provisions.”
Teachers who disobey rules and directives issued or distributed by the commission will be prosecuted.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers criticized the measures as being capricious and called for broad public involvement.
The union recently bemoaned the hiring of instructors for more than six months without pay while they served in an acting capacity.
The general secretary of KNUT, Collins Oyuu, requests that any teacher who is required to cover for a head teacher or deputy in another school or at his station receive acting allowance.
The chairman of the union objected to the TSC’s reassignment of teachers’ responsibilities to function as heads or deputies at schools without providing them with pay for their overtime.
TSC teachers to receive allowances in proposed regulation.
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