Special Needs Education (SNE) teachers have a reason to smile after President William Ruto made major declarations yesterday during the meeting with teacher leadership that brought together up to 10,000 teacher representatives drawn from teacher unions and associations.
Dr. Ruto, during the meeting, awarded the SNE teachers one job group upwards and ordered the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders to review the current teacher disability guide, which currently pays Ksh20,000.
“I have been to many schools where our children with Special Needs learn, and I agree that teachers in that space require Special attention. They have asked two grades…let me approve one grade first,” said Dr. Ruto.
“Let me also ask the Ministry, if Ksh20,000 for the guides was agreed upon a few years ago, sit down, review and see how much we can add so that instead of Ksh20,000, how much does it go to, within the resources that we can budget,” added Dr. Ruto.
Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET)Secretary General James Torome, who was part of the delegation to State House, told Education News that the Presidential declaration to SNE teachers is a big win since they have been pushing for the recognition of the teachers, especially for being left out in the 2018 Career Progression Guidelines (CPG).
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“This is a big win for SNE teachers since they’ve been disadvantaged when the 2018 CPG came into place. One job group up means an increase in both basic salary and allowances, and we really appreciate that the President did that,” said Torome.
KUSNET had proposed increasing the disability guide allowance to Ksh30,000 and a Presidential declaration that the guide be reviewed, it’s a sign of relief to them.
At the same time, the pronouncement by President Ruto to approve one job group upward means that the teachers’ monthly basic earnings and their house, hardship, commuter, and annual leave allowances will automatically increase.
For instance, a Special Needs teacher-primary who is currently at Grade C2 T-Scale 7 will automatically be moved to Grade C3 T-Scale 8. This means their basic monthly salary will increase from the current minimum of Ksh39,070 and maximum of Ksh49,100 to a new minimum of Ksh46,699 and maximum of Ksh60,871.
Senior Special Needs teacher-primary and Special Needs teacher-secondary at Grade C3 T- Scale 8 will automatically be moved to Grade C4 T- Scale 9. This means their monthly basic salary will increase from the current minimum of Ksh46,699 and maximum of Ksh60,871 to a new minimum of Ksh56,922 and maximum of Ksh70,923.
By Hezron Roy
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