Inside new teachers' allowances

Teachers working in cities will be the greatest beneficiaries of the Sh13 billion salary and allowances adjustments implemented by the government in the final phase of the 2021-2025 pay deal.

Details released by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) revealed that tutors in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru and Eldoret will get housing allowances of between 4,500 and Sh50,000.

Those teaching in Nairobi will smile all the way to the bank as the highest paid teachers will get housing allowance of Sh50,000. The least paid under this category will get a housing allowance of Sh6,750.

These details are contained in a circular dated August 29 and released by TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia.

Those working in Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru Cities, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi and Kitale will get a housing allowance of between Sh4,500 and Sh35,000.

The Thursday circular also revealed that TSC had collapsed the clusters grouping teachers based on the areas they teach from four to three.

Nairobi falls under cluster one while the rest of the cities are lumped under cluster two.

Teachers serving in all other regions will now fall under cluster three and will take home between Sh3,850 and Sh25,000.

While the housing allowance is a significant financial boost for teachers, particularly in high-cost areas, it is important to note that the allowance in Cluster 3 may not be sufficient to cover the full cost of housing, especially in urban areas.

This could lead to financial strain for teachers in these regions.

However, various stakeholders argue that the varying allowances across different clusters could contribute to disparities in the quality of life for teachers. 

However, this is not all, teachers will also get commuter, hardship, disability and annual leave allowances.

For commuter allowance, teachers will receive between Sh4,000 and Sh16,000. While annual leave, will be spread between Sh4,000 and Sh10,000.

Teachers living with disability will get a flatrate token of Sh20,000. For hardship allowance, teachers in these areas will take home between Sh6,600 and Sh38,100.

The circular gives the official new salary scales for teachers with increment of between Sh393 and Sh2,570 having received a similar increase last year in the first phase of the CBA implementation.

However, teachers in five pay grades C4, C5, D4 and D5 under minimum pay level and will not get any increment. 

Under the new deal, teachers in pay Grade B5–  the lowest ranking teachers– will get a minimum pay rise of Sh1,037 from Sh22,793 to 23,830.

Those in job group C1 will get 29,787 from 28,491 signifying an increase of Sh1,296  Those in C2  will get an increase of Sh1,666 -- from Sh36,621 to Sh38,286.

Those in C3 will now earn a minimum wage of Sh45,671 from 44,413. The lowest earners in job group C4 will get Sh52,308 and Sh62,272 in Job group C5 respectively. 

The least increment will go to teachers in the D1 job group who will get Sh393 more from Sh78,233 to 78,625, D2 (Sh1,455 from 91,769 to 92,496) and D3 (Sh1,399 more from Sh105,344 to 106,043).