Teachers in rural areas the biggest winners as pay hikes take effect

Teachers living in rural areas are set to be amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the review in their salaries and allowances.

The allowances, harmonised in the new salary reviews, will see the teachers not only get a salary hike of between 2.4 per cent to 9.5 per cent starting this month, but will also benefit from enhanced house allowances in the new grouping of regions.

Under the new pay structure for teachers, the lowest earning teachers are the biggest beneficiaries with the higher percentage of the hike at 9.5% going to them, while those on the higher end of the scale get a 2.4% increase.

Beginning this month, the teachers will be going home with bigger pay checks when the hikes, backdated to July, take effect.

Under the new structures, entry level teachers at primary school level, will earn between Ksh.22,793 and Ksh.28, 491.

Those in job grade C1, including sections of primary, secondary and lecturers will get a salary of between Ksh.28,491 and Ksh.35,614 being the highest paid, grade C2 teachers, lecturers and special needs teachers will get Ksh.36,621 for the lowest paid and Ksh.45,776 for the highest paid.

Grade C3 teachers, lecturers will get between Ksh.44,412 and Ksh.56,514, while job grade C5, will earn between Ksh.62,272 and Ksh.78,667.

Senior masters, headteachers, deputy principals and senior lecturers who fall under job grade D1 will earn between Ksh.77,840 for the lowest and Ksh.95,101 for the highest paid within that group, while those in job grade D2, deputy principals 2 and senior master 1 teachers will earn a minimum of Ksh.91,000, and a maximum of Ksh.110,000.

Senior Principals, who fall under job grade D4 will get between Ksh.118,000 and Ksh.143,000 for the lowest and highest paid, while Chief Principals, sitting at the top of the pay pyramid at grade D5 will earn between Ksh.131,000 and Ksh.159,000 as basic salaries.

Other than the new basic salaries for the teaching fraternity, teachers are also set to benefit from a review of their allowances.

Amongst those who will be smiling all the way to the bank are teachers living in rural areas; their house allowances have been harmonised under the four clusters, covering all areas of the country.

In the new allowances structure, a grade B5 teacher will be entitled to a house allowance of Ksh.6,750 if they live in cluster one area, Nairobi, Ksh.4,400 for cluster 2 areas of Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii, Malindi and Kitale, and Ksh.3,850 for those living in cluster three areas comprising of other former municipalities and a similiar amount for all other areas of the country.

A Chief Principal living in Nairobi will be entitled to Ksh.50,000 as house allowance, one in cluster 2 areas will get Ksh.35,000, while those in cluster three will get Ksh.25,000 and those residing in cluster 4 will get Ksh.21,000 as house allowance.

The house allowances have been factored in the August payroll. All other allowances including, including hardship, commuter, leave and disability allowances remain unchanged.