President William Ruto has said that 41,000 teachers are to be promoted as a reward for excellence in teaching and as a motivation for their hard work.
Speaking on Wednesday during the Kenya Music Festival Winner’s State, the president said the Teachers Service Commission will promote 5,000 teachers directly and 36,000 teachers indirectly.
These teachers are expected to get new pay and benefits.
“We have worked with the TSC so that we can incentivise our teachers to bring out their best by making sure that teachers who do well will be promoted,” he said.
“This year, we have provided for the promotion of 5,000 teachers directly, and 36,000 teachers will be promoted indirectly.”
The president revealed that the government has allocated Sh1 billion to TSC to facilitate this promotion.
“We have provided a billion shillings that will go in that direction,” he said.
In addition, the president recommended that the Cabinet Secretary for Education Ezekiel Machogu promote teachers who trained those students who participated in the Kenya Music Festival Winner’s State.
“Teachers who have done this phenomenal job by training these young people, writing the scripts and doing exemplary works, should join those to be promoted in this cycle.
"I believe that they deserve that promotion because they have excelled and they have gone beyond their call of duty,” the President said.
At the same time, Ruto has asked TSC, Teachers Unions and other stakeholders to expedite their negotiations and come up with a solution.
Recently, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) announced a seven to 10 percent salary rise for civil servants which will run for a period of two years.
However, KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misori said they would reject the proposal.
He said the main agendas in the discussion will include; a basic salary increment of 70 percent, promotions, medical benefits and a pension scheme.
"We shall focus on where our Collective Bargaining Agreement talks stalled. We shall not slide to new proposals because we had already started talks on the salaries," Misori said.
The agreement was signed by TSC, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET).
Misori demanded that teachers’ salaries should be reviewed before increasing the salaries of state officers