Teachers lament poor pay and weak representation

A grim picture faces the teaching fraternity, weighed down by low pay, shrinking take-home earnings and a growing sense of abandonment, even as the country marks Labour Day.

The celebrations meet teachers facing heavy deductions that erode their earnings, stalled promotions under the Career Progression Guidelines, a troubled medical cover under the Social Health Authority, and lingering uncertainty over the place of junior secondary school teachers.

At the same time, unions are under growing scrutiny from members who question their effectiveness, even as many of these issues remain unresolved years later. At the centre of the discontent is pay, and how it compares with other critical sectors.

Under the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and unions, the lowest-paid teacher will earn Sh29,000, up from Sh23,000, while the highest-paid teacher will take home Sh167,415.

While the increment has been presented as a gain, the figures remain relatively lower compared to earnings in other public service roles.

In the National Police Service, a newly recruited Police Constable, often with comparable entry qualifications, earns between Sh25,600 and Sh29,300, effectively placing them at par with the lowest-paid teacher.

But the gap widens sharply at the top, where senior police officers earn between Sh345,800 and over Sh584,000, more than three times the salary of the highest-paid teacher. The disparity is more pronounced in the health sector.

Medical interns, the lowest cadre in the profession, earn between Sh46,120 and Sh61,110, significantly higher than entry-level teachers and with a range of allowances. At the top, senior doctors earn up to Sh576,000 per month, again dwarfing the earnings of the most experienced teachers.

The comparison sharpens a long-standing question: how a profession widely regarded as the backbone of national development continues to rank among the lowest paid. For teachers, the concern goes beyond basic salary to what remains after deductions.

Statutory cuts, including Pay As You Earn (PAYE), pension contributions and Social Health Authority (SHA) deductions, take a significant portion of their earnings.

On top of that are union dues, whether a teacher is a member or not, loan repayments and other check-off systems that further shrink net pay.

The result, many say, is a payslip that bears little resemblance to what is actually received. In some cases, teachers report taking home less than a third of their gross salary, leaving them struggling to meet basic needs in an increasingly high-cost economy.

“It looks like an increment on paper, but in reality, you are barely surviving. I take home Sh7,000 after deductions,” a secondary school teacher in Kisii told the Standard in an interview.

The financial strain is compounded by stalled career progression. The Career Progression Guidelines (CPG), introduced by TSC in 2017, replaced the schemes of service that previously guided promotions.

Nearly a decade on, the system remains deeply unpopular. Teachers say it has entrenched stagnation, with many stuck in one job group for years despite upgrading their qualifications.

Some have remained in job group C3 for over a decade, while others say they were effectively downgraded when the new structure was implemented.

The frustration has been building steadily amid calls to revamp the structure. However, despite occasional criticism by union leaders, teachers argue that the representatives have not done enough to push for the review of the promotion criteria.

“I have never been promoted since 2017. We were reclassified to new job groups and I have been in C3 since then,” a teacher said.

Attention is now turning to the unions, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), with growing questions over whether they have effectively defended teachers’ interests.

This comes even as union leaders retained their positions in recent elections. But Unease is deepening among teachers who say their predicaments are not new and unions have had years to act.

Promises to review the Career Progression Guidelines have been made repeatedly, including during the signing of both the 2021–2025 and 2025–2029 CBAs.

In 2023, unions announced the formation of a technical committee to address the promotion framework. To date, its findings have not been made public, and the guidelines remain unchanged.  Similar concerns have emerged over the long-running challenges around teachers’ medical cover.

The shift to the Social Health Authority scheme in December last year was backed by unions after talks with TSC and assurances of improved service delivery.

However, the rollout has been marred by delays in hospital admissions, system inefficiencies and limited access to private facilities.

Teachers report being turned away from hospitals, while outpatient cover capped at Sh1,200 per visit is widely seen as inadequate.

In March, unions raised concerns over teachers being detained in hospitals due to unpaid bills, but a meeting with Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale yielded little beyond administrative assurances.

And recently, the unions announced that they have reached an agreement with the Ministry of Health to address the troubles facing the coverage.

The situation mirrors the problems experienced under the previous Minet Kenya-administered scheme, raising questions about whether the transition delivered any meaningful change.

Similarly, the question of junior secondary school teachers remains unresolved. Three years after the rollout of the Competency-Based Curriculum, uncertainty persists over their placement and management.

While unions have pushed for autonomy, critics argue that rivalry between KNUT and KUPPET over membership has overshadowed efforts to resolve the structural challenges affecting teachers.

Even as KUPPET moves to create a national position to represent junior school teachers, concerns around deployment, career progression and identity remain unsettled.