The Teachers Service Commission, TSC remunerates her teachers by paying hardship allowances to those who work in the marginalized areas. The marginalized areas are those places which are obviously known to have challenges such as inadequate food, poor transport and communication, inadequate or no social services and amenities, harsh climatic conditions and security threats. The major purpose of hardship allowances is to compensate for the cost of living to teachers who work in the hardship areas.
In the year 2014 in December, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC in leadership of Sarah Serem, reviewed the hardship allowance fees to be paid at a flat rate for all teacher’s equivalent grades and job groups. The Commission effectively abolished the pegging of the hardship allowance as a percentage of basic pay.
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Currently, teachers who land TSC jobs to teach in the following counties are entitled to hardship allowances: Garissa County, Isiolo County, Kilifi County, Kwale County, Lamu County, Mandera County, Marsabit County, Narok County, Samburu County, Taita Taveta County, Tana River County, Turkana County, Wajir County and West Pokot County. Some counties which are not yet listed by the Teachers’ service Commission parts of Kisumu and Busia Counties have hardship allowances too.
The above-mentioned counties meet all the challenges highlighted above. The hardship allowances allowed to teachers highly depend on a teacher’s job group. Teachers in job group B5 (formerly G) who just began their profession and get employed in the marginalized areas pocket around Kshs. 6,600. Teachers in job group D5 (formerly R) go home with up to Kshs. 38,100.
Here are the summarized monthly hardship allowances as per teacher’s job groups 2021/2024:
|
Grade |
TSC Scale |
Former Job Group |
Monthly Hardship Allowance (Kshs) |
|
| 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 | R | 38,100 |
