TSC Hardship Areas and Allowances

TSC Hardship Areas and Allowances

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has excluded all Sub-Counties in Nyandarua County from the list of hardship regions. Other counties affected by this move are Muranga, Kandara, Kigumo, and Nyahururu Sub-Counties 

The Commission has specified various areas as hardship areas. The areas listed as hardship comprise those that are in arid areas, those affected by famine and terrorism. 

In the year 2012, TSC had 38 areas listed and approved as hardship areas. These areas were listed as hardship areas and teachers in these areas got monthly hardship allowances. 

New Hardship Areas.

LIST OF COUNTIES MAPPED BY TSC UNDER HARDSHIP AREAS

FACTORS CONSIDERED

1. Limited basic social services and amenities. 
2. Insecurity and high possibility of security threats. 
3. Persistent harsh climatic conditions like flooding, landslides, and drought 
4. Lack of or unavailability or inaccessibility to food. 
5. Inadequate transport and communication network 

Hardship Allowances 

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC reviewed hardship allowance in 2014 to be paid at a flat rate for all equivalent grades or job groups. The Commission abolished the pegging of the hardship allowance as a percentage of basic pay. 

For teachers working in hardship areas, the above table shows a breakdown of how TSC compensates them according to their job group. 

Teachers to lose hardship allowance in some sub‐counties as the commission reviews hardship areas.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) later reconsidered the list of sub‐counties that will be Referred to as Hardship areas.

Teachers who have been working in these regions have been getting incentives ﴾hardship allowances﴿ to help sustain them in those places by recompensing for lack of social amenities, infrastructure and a challenging environment.

Among the affected areas that TSC will seize to pay hardship include Nyandarua County ﴾Kinangop, Kipipiri, ol Joro Orok, Ndaragwa, Ol Kalou Sub‐Counties﴿, Kigumo Sub‐County, Murang’a Sub County, Kandara Sub‐County and Nyahururu Sub‐County.

The commission made an official statement that will see teachers working in these areas have their Salaries reduced. The salary decrease of hardship allowance in areas where it has been scraped off began on 1st December 2020.

TSC officers were dispatched to different sub‐counties to evaluate and collect data for centres to be dismissed due to development achieved in such areas over time and others to be included to enjoy the incentives because of the conditions which are likely to demotivate teachers from working in such areas.

Late last year, World Bank called for the scrapping of hardship allowances paid to the state to workers to save ksh.3 billion as part of cost‐cutting measures to return the country on track after increased spending during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The review of hardship zones is needed as several regionshave developed their infrastructure and social amenitiesover the last two decades and are no longer classifiedhardship areas,” read the World Bank report on KenyaPublic Expenditure Review.

TSC has listed some counties as hardship areas but not all schools or Sub counties are captured as hardship centres. Previous Counties listed as hardship areas by TSC were Turkana, Mandera, Samburu, Marsabit, Wajir, Lamu, Kwale, Isiolo, Taita Taveta, Garissa, Tana River, Kilifi, Narok and West Pokot.

This will hardly affect teachers who have been using hardship allowances to acquire loans.

TSC Hardship Areas and Allowances