Muhalya: Hardship allowance insufficient for teachers in high-risk regions

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has played a very significant role as pertains to payment for teachers working in hard-to-staff areas otherwise called hardship areas, this has enormously helped to alleviate financial stress and ensure that teachers are fairly compensated for the work they do under difficult circumstances.

For an area to be made a beneficiary of such a program, a vivid assessment is carefully carried out to determine whether it merits to be gazetted as a hardship area.

The last comprehensive assessment was done by the World Bank which imagined that designating areas as hardship was wasteful and the country was in dire need to cut spending. This followed a review and mapping exercise whereby TSC officers were dispatched to various Sub-Counties to assess and collect accurate data from which the World Bank expected to save more than 3 Billion shillings.

Following that exercise, certain areas were removed from the Kenya Gazetted by the government as hardship beneficiaries; These areas included Nyandarua, Kigumo, Muranga, Kandara and Nyahururu.

Most hardship areas have various common characteristics including the presence of seasonal rivers making water scarce, very harsh climate, direct contact with wild animals, hostilities among communities, and inability to get useful basic requirements.

What scared me stiff over the almost 40 years of active service in hardship areas; are the seasonal rivers, this is extremely important to new teachers and those who wish to visit such areas, especially during rainy seasons.

A flooded classroom after flash floods

When a seasonal river rages, it becomes increasingly hard to cross since one has to wait for a total of three hours to allow water levels to come down, even so, it’s also worth noting that before you imagine crossing you should test the depth, it’s not okay to attempt to cross water that is deeper than one’s knees unless the speed of water is slow.

Fast-moving water is extremely dangerous, it’s therefore advisable to toss a floating object or a stick and see how fast it gets carried away, if you can’t walk alongside the object then know that the water is moving at a terrific speed and you shouldn’t attempt to cross.

You also have yo be on the look out for wild animals. Being adequately prepared for an attack by wild animals goes without saying. Occasionally, one is commanded to lead stolen livestock to a particular place and then leave immediately! Teachers in such areas should be given another allowance called “Special Hardship Allowance”.

Hardship allowance is sincerely not commensurate to the challenges that teachers come in contact with.

List of Hardship Allowances for Teachers

B5 -5- 6,600

C1- 6- 8,200

C2- 7-10,900

C3- 8-12,300

C4- 9-14,650

C5- 10-17,100

D1- 11-27,300

D2- 12- 27,300

D3- 13-31,500

D4- 14-31,500

D5- 15-38,100

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Notably, there has been a real exodus of workers which has indeed crippled learning in some hardship areas like Mandera, Wajir and Garissa among others.

The current demographic survey has revealed that as of October 2023; 46,962 secondary and primary school teachers had requested to be transferred from hardship areas or back to their homes and only 20,055 succeeded.

Teachers would wish to have serenity at their workplaces to be productive. In this regard, West Pokot leadership deserves appreciation for working assiduously to eradicate the menace of cattle rustling and unnecessary hostilities, this has greatly improved the socio-economic status of the county

Most officers and teachers transferred to hardship areas have on many occasions turned the transfers down because of fear of what they normally hear about such areas.

 

By  Hillary Muhalya.

 

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