Government set to honor teachers’ pay hike agreement

By Lucy Wangai

The government has set aside13.7 billion shillings to honor teachers’ pay hike 2017/2018 financial year, the Chairperson Education Parliamentary Select Committee Sabina Chege has revealed.
“The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) has been captured in the budget to forestall any attempts to interfere with the learning program this year,” she said.
Speaking at Kahawa Wendani in Ruiru, Chege pointed out that already a consultative meeting between the respective unions had been held and there will be no strike this year as the government is committed to keeping its promise on the CBA.
“After the current CBA is honored the next review will be done in 2021 meaning that the government has managed to ward off any industrial unrests in the education sector for the next 4 years,” she said.
In the recently negotiated CBA it was agreed that the P1 grade will be phased out and more than 100,000 teachers will consequently be promoted with effect from 1st July 2017.
The lowest paid primary school teacher will be taking home 27,195 while the lowest paid secondary school teacher will take home Kshs 34,955 from the previous kshs 31,020 respectively

Chege who was accompanied by the Deputy Director Basic Education Sarah Kinyanjui also revealed that the government has scrapped activity fee levies in public schools to ensure that many children accessed basic education.