By Hezron Roy
Over 4,000 P1/S1- A level teachers are optimistic President William Ruto’s government will come to their rescue in unlocking the arrears they have been fighting for since 2010.
Through their association of Retired and About to Retire (REAR) welfare association, the teachers said they are confident with how teacher issues are approached now, citing the recent motion passed in the National Assembly to repeal delocalization.
According to the association National Chairman Kepha Mshambala, who also represents all deputy head teachers and senior teachers, the current government is a defender of the poor, being in that socio-economic class themselves.
“When a teacher gets money wrongful from TSC by commission or omission, TSC brutally recovers that money without considering if the teacher is living with disability, sick or the pay slip is in ‘ICU’,” said Mshambala.
He added: “But when TSC gets money from teachers wrongfully by commission or omission, the teacher will have to fight to get it back. The philosophy of ‘bottom-up’ by President William Ruto is against injustice to the poor or those at the bottom.”
In a recent interview with Education News, Mshambala revealed that since the government released Ksh1.4 billion on July 1, 2010 to be distributed to this cadre of teachers, TSC has withheld their arrears.
He noted that the Commission has never accounted for the money since it has never revealed the number of teachers who have been graded and paid their arrears.
“Ksh1.4 billion has not been accounted for. TSC was supposed to state how many P1-A level teachers were graded and paid their arrears as per KNUT’s letter dated August 8, 2009, Ref No. KNUT/EDU/49/12/2009,” he observed.
They were promoted from P1, Approved Teacher Status (ATS)-4 and ATS-3 to ATS-1 (Job Group ‘L’) on account of their qualifications in 2010, but were never paid their arrears.
The teachers have since been on the warpath with their employer TSC and the National Treasury over the subdued arrears, saying they were due for promotion in 1996 when their colleagues who took a two-week course at Bondo and Kagumo TTCs were promoted to grade S1.
“We have listened very keenly to Deputy President’s (DP) speech and we feel it is sweet music to our ears after years of being treated as modern day slaves,” said Mshambala, referring to DP’s promise that all teachers’ issues must be looked into.
He added further that the issue of A-level teachers’ arrears is genuine since the employer accepted liability when it graded them.
In an earlier interview in September 2020, Mshambala revealed that despite some teachers attaining higher qualifications, their efforts have never been recognized by their employer despite them spending much on their higher qualifications.
He stated that some of the common challenges facing the A –Level teachers include over-staying in one Job Group (C3) for over 10 years, with some assistant teachers having acted as administrators for over five years without confirmation.
He revealed further during the interview that some teachers who retired from 2010 have not yet received their pensions.
The motion moved by Lurambi MP Titus Khamala, he said, was God-sent to relief teachers of the burden imposed by TSC; which he said is the rich oppressor in the bottom-up arrangement.
I’m a victim of the circumstance, Mr. Chairman. I personally thank you for highlighting our problems as A-level achievers with the required qualifications. We urge the government to help us get our arrears.