The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has finally lifted an embargo on promotions of teachers which has been in force since July last year. The move has seen over 35,000 tutors upgraded to various grades, Education News can now reveal. In Internal Memo dated June 25th, 2014 signed by the Director of Human Resource Management and Development, Mrs Josephine Maundu, it’s revealed that teachers under Common Cadre, those who had sat for Teacher Proficiency Course (TPC), those who had done competitive interviews and passed, and those with pending arrears would be paid their dues effect from July 1st, 2014. This, in effect, means that 19,826 teachers will be promoted under Common Cadre policy; 5,000 TPC teachers who passed the course will also benefit from the salary boost; 4,000 ‘A’ Level P1 teachers with pending arrears will also be considered and similarly unknown number of teachers who passed competitive interviews at Job Groups ‘M’ to ‘R’ will also benefit from the same arrangement. The Commission last week announced the promotion of 5,976 teachers across various cadres. Addressing Head teachers’ conference in Mombasa, TSC Secretary/Chief Executive, Gabriel Lengoiboni without giving a breakdown announced the promotion of the lot which, he said, includes secondary school teachers, Teacher Training College (TTC) tutors, CEMASTEA and Primary school teachers. The new development, however, comes as a shocker to over 7,500 teachers who attained higher qualifications upon acquisition of degrees and diplomas because they will not be promoted due to unforeseen reason(s). According to Mrs Maundu, this batch of tutors alongside those claiming incremental credits will not benefit from the package following the suspension of their awards/promotions. Mrs Maundu stated in the memo: “The Commission suspended promotion in recognition of higher qualification/incremental credit from July 1st, 2013. You are required to withhold all pending cases until further direction is given. “However, Common Cadre, TPC, those done through competitive interviews and those with pending arrears should be paid.” The Internal Memo is addressed to all Digit Heads at TSC, and copied to Acting Senior Deputy Director Human Resource Management, Deputy Director Human Resource Management, Deputy Director Finance/Salaries and Acting Deputy Director Integrated Personnel Payroll Data. In a memo dated April 23rd, 2014 titled Payment of Arrears on Promotion, Mrs Maundu had re-stated that the Commission in July 2013 suspended promotion/incremental credits in recognition of higher qualifications. She explained that they had two categories of promotions whose case needs to be sorted out since they had been partially affected. These included the one where they had issued the promotion letters, adjusted grade and salary on payroll but arrears were pending; while in the second category, the Commission had issued the promotion letters but the salaries had not been adjusted. The two cases had been captured for budget purpose but remained pending. “However, in consultation with the Director (Finance), it had been agreed that these cases be cleared before July 2014. “You (Digital Heads) are therefore authorised to recall the two category of cases; authorise and release the pending payments. “All Digit Heads must authorise the payment and no payment should be effected without the authority of the Digit Head, D(HRM&D), Ag. SDD(HRM) or D(HRM). “Note that promotions/incremental credits remain suspended for any other case other than those in either Category One or Two,” explained Mrs Maundu. The Director, however, cautioned Digit Heads that they will be held responsible for all cases within their range. “Note, we had given the Directorate of Finance an estimated budget of Sh60 million to cater for the pending arrears based on data from respective section. You should therefore restrict the exercise to the data provided,” advised Mrs Maundu. In a subsequent Internal Memo dated May 13th, 2014, Mrs Maundu directed all Digit Heads to stop with immediate effect payment of arrears for all promotion cases in the month of May and June. Said Mrs Maundu: “The Commission has directed that we suspend payment of arrears to teachers due to budgetary constraints. You are therefore required to effect the promotions to the next grades and keep proper records of the effected cases to be recalled back when funds are available. “However, you are required to pay arrears to new appointments and reinstatement cases. The cases whose arrears are already keyed in on payroll will be discussed further and a way forward given to you in due course.” Mrs Maundu’s latest Memo confirms the Commission’s position over clearance of promotions/incremental credits of various categories of teachers, as in a letter dated April 22, 2014 addressed to the Cabinet Secretary for Education Science and Technology, Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, the TSC Secretary stated that those who will enjoy the cash boost (Sh2.3 billion allocated to TSC for teacher promotion) include those who qualify for Common Cadre promotions after serving in one grade for more than three years; teachers who underwent competitive interviews for promotion previously and passed and tutors who successfully passed Teacher Proficiency Course. The Commission says that it needs a cool Sh6.6 billion to meet all the existing demands for promotion of teachers, with Sh3.6 billion needed for next year’s promotions while Sh3 billion is required to cover for the same commitments by end of July this year. This means that not all of the 53,000 teachers who deserve the promotions will have their cases dispensed. “The total requirement is Sh6.6 billion of which Sh3.6 billion is for 2014/2015 Financial Year requirement and Sh3 billion being requirement for outstanding cases which have not been paid in the current Financial Year (2013/2014) due to lack of budgetary provision,” says Lengoiboni in the letter addressed to the minister. In the letter, the TSC Secretary expresses concern that the Commission would experience a budgetary deficit of Sh19 billion following the allocations to the teachers’ employer based on 2014/2015 budgetary proposals and appealed to Prof Kaimenyi to intercede if all outstanding commitments are to be met by the single largest employer in the country. With the shortfall of cash, Lengoiboni stated, over 53,000 teachers who need to be promoted under the provisions of the three Schemes of Service for Teachers currently in use at the Commission will be affected. In the letter titled TSC 2014/2015 Budgetary Provision (Deficit) seen by Education News, Lengoiboni says 19,826 teachers will automatically be promoted to the next grade after serving for three years in a grade, adding that this rule will apply to tutors who are on Job Groups ‘J’ to ‘K’ and ‘K’ to ‘L’ respectively. Lengoiboni revealed that teachers in various categories who qualified for promotion after successfully going through advertised posts will be some of the winners of the cash set aside for promotions. They include advertised posts from Job Group‘M’ all the way to the highest grade of ‘R’. He, however, did not indicate the number of teachers who qualify under this consideration. At the same time, it’s now clear that those who attained higher qualifications after pursuing further studies will not gain in the new package. According to TSC, most of those who qualify for upgrading under this category are primary school teachers, especially P1 Certificate holders who have obtained Diplomas and Degrees in Education, Special Education or Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE).
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 18:24:55 +0000
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