Mazera Ndurya
3 July 2009
Nairobi — Terms of the 10,000 teachers to be hired on contract will be improved when the country's financial position gets better, the Teachers' Service Commission has said.
"This is a temporary measure. When opportunities arise, these will be the first people to be considered for permanent and pensionable terms," TSC chairman Ibrahim Hussein told the annual Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association conference in Mombasa.
Mr Hussein asked the Kenya National Union of teachers not to politicise the contracts.
Knut has in the past criticised the plan, saying the teachers would be hired as casual employees, yet they would be doing the same job as their permanent and pensionable colleagues.
The country requires more than 60,000 new teachers to meet the increasing demand for quality education. Of these, 22,000 are needed in secondary and 45,000 in primary schools.
Mr Hussein said the vacancies would be filled when the government increased the budgetary allocation for education. He assured teachers that the implementation of the new terms of service for teachers, which include harmonisation of salaries with those of other civil servants, would be reviewed once the economy improves.
The new scheme will be implemented in three phases but the TSC chairman said it could be reduced to two phases, depending on the economy. Mr Hussein told the headteachers that the government would soon start working on their request.
"As TSC, we are convinced that it's justified, because of the responsibilities that headteachers have and we are optimistic that this will be done," he said.
He told the principals that hardship allowances were being reviewed alongside that of other government departments.
Mr Simon Kavisi, a senior official who represented TSC secretary Gabriel Lengoiboin, said major reforms had been put in place to streamline the operations of the commission.
He said the TSC was soon going full scale on information technology to address the backlog on promotion of teachers, particularly in most affected job groups - L to N.
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