By Our Reporter
A teachers’ union has called on the Teachers Service Commission to amend a section of the Code of Regulations for Teachers so as to make it automatic for transferred teachers to enjoy transfer allowance.
The Narok County Kenya Union for Post Primary Education Teachers Executive Secretary Charles Ngeno wondered why teachers transferred by the commission are asked to apply for the allowance when the said transfers have been initiated by the commission.
“Since only those teachers transferred at the discretion of the commission are eligible for this allowance, then the code should be amended so that these teachers automatically get paid at the end of the month,” said Ngeno adding that most teachers who apply for it only enjoy the allowance months after reporting to their new stations.
Speaking to the press in his office Ngeno said the commission only pays teachers who applied for the allowance.
“This is an allowance that is meant to cushion teachers as they settle down in their new stations. However it makes no sense if the same is paid several months after the transfer,” he said.
Ngeno revealed that every teacher transferred outside their sub-counties is entitled to a transfer allowance equivalent to one month’s basic salary.
“Section 97(1) says the commission shall where at its discretion transfer a teacher from one sub-county to another, pays transfer allowance to the teacher,” said Ngeno.
At the same time Ngeno asked principals and head teachers who were transferred through the TSC program of delocalization to apply for the allowance immediately.
Ngeno advised the teachers that the commission will not pay them if they do not apply for the allowance.
According to the regulations the commission shall not pay transfer allowance to a teacher who initiates a transfer.
At the beginning of the year TSC transferred 557 principals and deputiesin a move meant to enable teachers who had stayed in one centre for more than nine years serve in others.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said the transfers were effected in a new “delocalisation programme” to promote national integration.
It is also meant to ensure that fresh ideas are infused into institutions after long-stay of some head teachers in some schools.
Dr Macharia said the transfers will be implemented gradually until all the objectives of the reform measures are fully realised.
Among the other allowances that teachers enjoy include annual leave allowance, special duty allowance, hardship allowance and readers’ facilitation allowance to teachers living with disabilities.
