Public primary and secondary school teachers will get awards for outstanding KCPE, KCSE examination results in their subjects and out-of-class activities.
The reforms are part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement signed between the Teachers Service Commission and the tutor’s unions.
The CBA was received with mixed reactions due to the lack of monetary gains that have defined past negotiations.
The CBA will serve the period July 2021- July 2026.
Although teachers do not get a pay rise in the CBA, they have more maternity days and recognition of exemplary performers.
In the new plan, TSC says tutors with outstanding performance in and outside class will be honoured.
Those who excel in national examinations, sports, theatre, management, innovation and research and advocacy will get rewards.
“We have rolled out an exercise of capturing data of teachers who excel in various areas of work with a view of rewarding them as it would be decided from time to time,” TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia said on Tuesday.
The document states that teachers who are married will be able to seek transfers to a common area to maintain family units.
Transfer of teachers had proved to be a big challenge in the just expired CBA, with stakeholders accusing the commission of separating families.
The transfers targeted teachers and administrators that had served in a school for more than nine years.
In the agreement, female teachers will be granted a maternity leave of 120 calendar days with full salary pay with effect from the date of delivery, as opposed to 90 days under the Employment Act.
For the male teachers, their paternity leave has been extended to three weeks from the initial two weeks.
For teachers who might opt for adoption, they will enjoy 45 days from the date of adoption. This follows legislation passed by Parliament effecting adoption leave.
The law requires employers to offer a minimum of 30 days for the parents to bond with the adopted children.
The TSC will retain the contentious career progression guidelines adopted in 2018 to guide the promotion of teachers.
Kenya National Union of Teachers under the leadership of the former secretary general Wilson Sossion had objected to the tool in favour of the promotion criteria dubbed schemes of service.
Teachers were promoted based on their years of service, academic achievement, and exemplary performance.
The progression guidelines offer automated promotions, where teachers move to a different and more superior job group annually. It also takes to cognisance exemplary performance.
In a bid to staff areas that have failed to attract enough teachers, the TSC offered to promote teachers serving in arid and semi-arid areas.
The ASAL and hard-to-staff areas are Baringo (Baringo North, Tiaty East and Tiaty West, Marigat sub-counties), Garissa, Homa Bay (Suba and Mbita subcounties), Isiolo, Kajiado (Mashuuru, Loitoktok and Kajiado West subcounties), Kwale, Kilifi (Magarini and Ganze), Lamu.
Others are Mandera, Marsabit, Mumoni, Mutito North and Tseikuru sub-counties in Kitui County, Narok South and Narok North sub-counties in Narok County, Samburu, Taita Taveta, Tana River, Turkana, Wajir and West Pokot.
