By Staff Reporter
It is a big relief that learners are expected back in school after the long break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The plus-side is that the long drawn stand-offs between teachers’ unions and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) are unlikely to feature.
Debate in the education sector will revolve around what will be happening in the classroom and not outside or on the streets.
Good news of minimized salary disparity of the highest and lowest paid teacher at the same grade in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will be the motivating factor.
Conversion tables by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) before the CBA came into force and the last leg of its implementation reveal drastically reduced salary gaps.
The Commission condensed various salary points in what might become reference points for future salary negotiations.
Before the introduction of the CBA, the highest and lowest paid Chief Principal at grade D5 T Scale 15 earned Sh144,928 and Sh89,748 respectively, translating to a gap of Sh55,180 per month.
Once the CBA came into force this gradually shrunk to Sh26,276 per month with the highest and lowest Chief Principal earning Sh157,656 and Sh131,380 respectively.
The highest paid and lowest paid Senior Principal at grade C2 T Scale 14 took home Sh103,894 and Sh77,527 respectively per month, a gap of Sh26,367 on June 31st 2017, before the CBA was enforced.
Currently, the gap stands at Sh3,648 per month where the highest takes home Sh121,890 and the lowest Sh118,242 per month with two salary points compared to seven.
The salary disparity between the highest and lowest paid Principal and Deputy Principal I at grade D3 T Scale-13 stood at Sh23,700 per month on June 30th 2017.
With the CBA in place, this gradually reduced and currently stands nil with one salary point compared to the previous seven.
In June 2017, for example, the lowest took home Sh41,590 and the highest earned Sh65,290 a difference of Sh23,700 per month.
The above teachers currently earn a similar take home of Sh104,644 per month hence one salary point compared to the previous seven.
On June 30th 2017, the highest paid and lowest paid Deputy Principal II and Senior Master I in grade D2 T Scale 12 stood at Sh17,100 per month.
During the first phase of the CBA, this increased to Sh20,956 per month. However, it declined to Sh13,704 per month and teachers in that grade earn a similar salary of Sh91,041 per month.
Before the CBA, the highest paid teacher in the category pocketed Sh65,290 and the lowest Sh41,590 per month, with seven salary points.
Senior Master II, Deputy Principal III/Senior Head Teacher/Senior Lecturer II at grade D1 T Scale 11 had a wage gap of Sh23,700 between the highest and lowest paid teacher, per month.
The highest paid teacher in his category before the CBA took home Sh65290 and the lowest pocketed Sh41,590 per month.
However, in the course of the CBA, the salaries were adjusted and the highest earns Sh85,269 and the lowest Sh77, 840 per month, translating to reduced gap of Sh7,429 per month and two salary points compared to seven.
Senior Master III, Senior Lecturer III, Head Teacher I and Curriculum Support Officer I also saw the disparity between the highest and lowest paid reduce.
Before the CBA set in, the salary differences between the highest and lowest teachers in this grade stood at Sh39,148 per month but in the course of the CBA, this reduced to stand at Sh2,359 per month.
Senior Master IV/Senior Lecturer IV/SNE Senior Teacher-Primary/SNE Teacher I-Secondary/Deputy Head Teacher II in grade C4 T Scale 9 were equally affected.
The difference in the monthly salary between the highest and lowest paid teacher in this grade stood at Sh29,188 before the CBA came into place but reduced to stand currently at Sh3,296 per month.
Secondary Teacher I/Lecturer I/SNE Teacher I-Primary/SNE Teacher II-Secondary/Senior Teacher I saw the disparity between the highest and lowest reduce from Sh21,218 before the CBA came in to force to Sh10,789.
Secondary Teacher II/Secondary Teacher II-UT graduate/Secondary Teacher II-Technical Certificate/SNE Teacher II-Primary/Lecturer II/Senior Teacher II in grade C 2 T scale 7 were also affected.
Before the CBA came into effect, the salary disparity between the highest and lowest teacher in this grade stood at Sh24,898 and reduced to currently stand at Sh8,739 per month.
Before the start of the CBA implementation, the salary disparity between the highest and lowest paid Secondary Teacher III/Secondary Teacher III-UT Certificate/Lecturer III/Primary Teacher I stood at Sh10,595.
Over time, the gaps reduced to about Sh6,799 per month.
Secondary Teacher II/Secondary Teacher II-UT Graduate/Secondary Teacher II-Technical Certificate/SNE Teacher II-Primary/Lecturer/II/Senior teacher II also saw the disparity go down from about Sh24,898 per month to Sh8,739 per month.
This was not however, the case with Primary Teacher II at grade B5 T Scale 5 who saw the salary disparity increase from Sh4,612 before the CBA was implemented to currently about Sh5,439.
I am concerned of two areas of education 1.ECDE and Adult Education I have never heard or seen any publicity of these areas to me they are very important imagine how ECDE teacher trains a child from nothing to someone all of us know this how much are they paid as compared to secondary school teachers or lecture I am so touched who does a lot of work? Secondly may I talk of Adult Education and the teachers same applies to them illiteracy is seen during election how many votes get spoiled? census report has this problem of illiterate per county and sub county.i wish the two areas addressed more teachers be employed and be paid as professionals like lecturers not peanut and their programs be shown publicly like we see KCPE and KCSE not forgetting graduation of university.Do we see Our ECDE children or Adults graduate?