Teachers against the TSC's proposed code of regulation

Teachers have described the proposed Teachers Service Commission (TSC) code of regulations as punitive and unfriendly to teachers. Bomet Branch Kenya National Union of Teachers Executive Secretary Malel Langat said the commission should come up with a code that will not only improve the quality of education but also reward teachers who have excelled in their areas. He singled out restrictions on responsibility allowance which he termed as discriminatory and aims at discouraging teachers from taking over administrative duties. “By saying that only teachers in job group J and below and in administrative positions will be entitled to responsibility allowance, the commission is not only unfair but also discriminative. Over 90 per cent of teachers serving in administrative positions are past this job group and will thus not be entitled to responsibility allowance,” he said. Allowances He appealed to the commission to ensure that every teacher holding an administrative position gets the allowance. Under the new rules, a head teacher in a double-stream school earns a responsibility allowance of Sh675 while his deputy and senior teacher takes home Sh180 and Sh135 per month respectively.
Langat said TSC must look into ways of motivating the teachers by raising responsibility allowance to be at par with other civil servants. He also said that the commission needs to standardise the money (per diem) that teachers are paid whenever they attend official functions.
“As a branch we shall be demanding that the commission reviews its criteria of determining areas that qualify for hardship allowance. We shall also be rooting for a review of responsibility allowance which is currently too little. We want it harmonised with that of other public servants,” added Langat.