The latest move by Teachers Service Commission(TSC) to state that it will recover hardship and house allowances paid ‘erroneously’ has left teachers reeling from awakening shock.
In a letter from TSC addressed to the principal of Kibos Special Secondary school, teachers in the aforementioned school have been receiving hardship allowance yet the school was wrongly mapped.
“This office has learnt that your school was mapped under Kisumu Municipality and marked for hardship allowance erroneously,” read part of the letter.
The letter further reads that the affected school has now been mapped under Miwani ward of former Nyando County Council.
“This is to inform you that it has now been mapped under Miwani ward of former Nyando county council effective from 1st July, 2020,” further read the letter.
The letter from the teachers’ employer further instructed that overpayment that was made to teachers will be recovered. “Resulting overpayment will be recovered from teachers stationed there.”
Hardship allowance is paid to teachers who teach in schools found in areas with harsh climatic condition, poor communication network, insecurity among other life threatening factors.
Read also: Counties listed by TSC as Hardship Areas for Teachers in Kenya
This allowance is paid according to the job group/grade of the teacher. The lowest grade(B5) which is also the entry grade for teachers in primary school attract an allowance of ksh 6,600 per month, the highest job group/grade(D5) attracts kshs 38,100 monthly.
Here is the table for TSC hardship allowance in all job groups.
S/NO | GRADE | TSC SCALE | FORMER JOB GROUP | Hardship Allowance- in Kshs per Month |
1 | B5 | 5 | G | 6,600 |
2 | C1 | 6 | H | 8,200 |
3 | C2 | 7 | I | 10,900 |
4 | C3 | 8 | J | 12,300 |
5 | C4 | 9 | K | 14,650 |
6 | C5 | 10 | L | 17,100 |
7 | D1 | 11 | M | 27,300 |
8 | D2 | 12 | N | 27,300 |
9 | D3 | 13 | P | 31,500 |
10 | D4 | 14 | Q | 31,500 |
11 | D5 | 15 | Â R | 38,100 |