DP William Ruto tells TSC, Treasury to plan on how to pay teachers

The government has called on education stakeholders to come together and plan on how to pay teachers following a court ruling awarding them a pay rise.

Deputy President William Ruto, who was speaking to Radio Citizen’s Jambo Kenya programme Friday morning, said the buck now stops with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministries of Education and Finance.

Ruto said that the court ruling cannot be ignored or debated and called on the National Assembly and TSC together with other education stakeholders to sit down and plan on how to implement the payment.

The DP said the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury must look into ways of raising the necessary amounts to pay the teachers.

He also challenged the Members of Parliament to help resolve the crisis by re-allocating some funds from the “less-important” functions and projects to paying teachers.

Ruto’s sentiments comes amid a tag of war between teachers and their employer TSC over the 50 – 60% pay rise awarded by the Industrial Court last month.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have given TSC up to Monday to effect the pay failure to which they will down their tools.

KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion said that the court ruling is not debatable and that the pay rise must be effected without failure.

On Thursday, the Parliamentary Committee on Budget led by Mutava Musyimi challenged the National Treasury to put in place a payment plan before teachers down their tools paralyzing learning activities in all public schools across the country.

On Monday, Sossion said teachers will file a contempt of court case if TSC fails to obey the court decision and pay them.

The KNUT boss also called for sacking of Salaries and Remunerations Commission Chair Sarah Serem for reportedly saying teachers should not get the pay hike, saying she is in contempt of court.