Kisumu — The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has launched a new push to increase teachers’ salaries by 60 percent, citing the high cost of living.
The union wants a renegotiation of the 2021-2025 CBA to incorporate the new demand, since the document did not capture any monetary aspects.
KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu said the 60% salary increment across board was based on the fact that teachers have not been promoted for the last five years.
With the rising cost of living since 1st July, 2017, the 60 % pay rise, he added, was necessary to compensate teachers.
“We are going to apply the clause that says that both parties can sit down and renegotiate the terms of the CBA. We sat with TSC in Naivasha and have a window to have this matter addressed,” he said.
Oyuu who spoke in Kisumu Tuesday, where the union is holding its 62nd annual delegates conference further opposed the proposal by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to deduct Sh6, 000 per teacher annually to fund the Teachers Professional Development Programme (TDP).
The programme, which targets to retool teachers in the public and private sector must be funded by the government, he added.
“We don’t have enough for our teachers to sustain themselves. How can we ask them to pay Sh. 6, 000 for this programme?” he posed.
The union, he said, has engaged the Parliamentary select committee on education to look into the matter and appropriate funds to a tune of Sh4.5 billion to run the programme.
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Over 2,000 delegates from the 110 branches of the union are in Kisumu to attend the Annual Delegates conference, where the union will pronounce itself on pertinent issues facing the teaching fraternity.
The Secretary General added that the union was pushing for the re-establishment of an appeals tribunal to address teacher’s indiscipline cases, noting that the current arrangement, where the TSC accuses teachers of wrongdoing and goes ahead to hear and determine their cases was unfair.
Oyuu lauded the government’s initiative to submit the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) to public participation, adding that the union will engage the employer on other issues and policies in the sector which have been detrimental to the welfare of teachers.
He pointed out the delocalization policy which has seen so many families disintegrated, ended up killing the morale of teachers.
The other issue, he said, was promotion of teachers based on professional in-service training other than additional academic qualifications.
The secretary general said the union will be pushing for teachers to be promoted based on the newly acquired academic qualifications, since they have invested heavily in the training.
“Teachers have taken loans to further studies and therefore deserve to get the promotions,” he said.
Other issues to be discussed during the conference include the impending employment of teachers, funding of the education system and review of education policies.
High profile officials from other unions and the national government are expected to address the gathering Wednesday.
