TSC chairperson Lydia Nzomo at a past media briefing. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Teachers tell of struggle to make ends meet as banks and their sacco shun them.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has remained tight-lipped on the fate of teachers who are yet to be paid September salaries after they went on strike for five weeks.
Chairperson Lydia Nzomo declined to discuss the issue with journalists after appearing before the National Assembly’s Education Committee on Thursday.
Ms Nzomo had earlier in the week indicated that the commission was to meet and make a decision on the issue before Friday.
Over 245,000 teachers missed their September pay after the TSC only paid 42,973 tutors.
Most of those who were paid were principals, their deputies and heads of department who were in schools duration the five-week strike. The rest are struggling to meet essential expenditures like food, rent, fees and loan obligations.
The teachers’ unions – the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) – are also yet to receive union fees that are deducted from the tutors’ salaries.
“I have not received my salary, the same applies to my wife who is also a teacher. It’s tough because I am supposed to provide for my family,” said a teacher, who requested anonymity, adding that they were surviving on handouts from friends and debts. The teachers were last paid on August 26.
Currently, the two unions get more than Sh2 billion annually as membership fees, which they use to fund their activities and pay staff. The unions deduct a two per cent union fee from every teacher’s basic salary.
Banks have also shied away from giving advance salaries to teachers due to lack of clarity on whether their pay will be released, further limiting financial options for teachers.
The Mwalimu National Savings and Credit Society suspended salary advances to teachers two weeks ago over the issue. Knut and Kuppet have appealed to the commission to pay teachers and even threatened to sue the employer. Knut secretary- general Wilson Sossion said teachers are back in class and should therefore be paid.
His Kuppet counterpart, Akelo Misori, also insisted that the commission should pay teachers.
“We have gone back to work and we expect the TSC to pay the teachers their September dues as directed by court,” said Mr Misori.
On Thursday, the TSC suspended the recruitment of 70,000 relief teachers in compliance with a Labour Court ruling. TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said county directors have since been advised on the issue.
Speaking when she appeared before National Assembly’s Education Committee on Thursday, Mrs Macharia said the recruitment had been necessitated by the shortage of teachers across the country.
“We will keep the details of all the applicants in our database as we await the verdict of the court,” said Mrs Macharia, even as she insisted that the exercise was to replace teachers who have left the commission through retirement or death.
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