Secondary school teachers have made fresh demands for increased allowances to officiate the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, which are scheduled to begin on October 22, 2024.
Through the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), the teachers have asked for their out-of-workstation allowances to be raised by between 750 and 900 per cent.
In a letter to Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, Kuppet Secretary-General Akello Misori proposes a new rate of Sh3,000 per day for invigilators, up from Sh400 per day (a 750 per cent rise).
The union wants supervisors to be paid 3,500 per day from the Sh450 they are paid currently (a 778 per cent rise) and Sh4,500 for principals, who also act as examination centre managers during the examination period.
Currently, the principals are paid Sh500 per day and therefore this would translate to a 900 per cent increase.
The demand for better remuneration of teachers deployed during the examination period was one of the grievances of Kuppet when it called for a strike in August before agreeing a consent with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that ended the strike.
For this year’s KCSE examinations, both the supervisors and invigilators will be secondary school teachers. Previously, the supervisors would be from secondary schools while invigilators were primary school teachers.