KUPPET Issues New Demands, Wants Examiners’ Pay Increased

The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) now wants the government to increase payment rates for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examiners to 100 shillings per paper marked.

Currently, the markers are paid differently based on the subjects they are marking. For example, in Christian Religious Education (CRE), subject examiners are only paid Sh55 for every script, whereas markers in other subjects are paid between Sh60 and 70 per paper.

KUPPET general Akelo Misori said the teachers have been marking exams in distress. The union now wants KNEC to raise the rates from Sh55 to Sh100 per script. Misori said the concerns raised are part of the issues facing teachers in other marking centers.

KUPPET officials recently urged harmonization, which they believe will put a stop to years of disputes among professionals participating in the noble national activity.

The officials who paid an impromptu visit to St Francis Girls High School-Mang’u, a KCSE marking center in Gatundu North, Kiambu County, that was closed on Tuesday evening following examiner protests, were led by Julius Korir, the union’s national vice chairman , and decried that the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has been violating labor practices by underpaying the evaluators.

“We are agitating for these teachers to be paid Sh100 and above per paper marked. Currently, there is no harmony, and this has brought on sustained infighting. “This must come to an end,” stated Korir.

Korir claims that, despite the fact that examiners are required to go through huge volumes of paperwork, the government continues to pay them little.

He revealed that the assessors had been waking up as early as 4 am and not putting down their pens until after 10 pm, causing them great distress.

Korir called on Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to convene a conference with key stakeholders in 24 hours after they were thrown out of the Mang’u marking facility by armed police officers who remained on the premises on Tuesday.

“Since the issue of the examiner’s marking fee is an individual contract, and agreed to before reporting to a center, the council found it impossible to find an extra budget to revise the rates midway,” Nyabundi said.

At the end of the day, the council allowed teachers who wished to proceed with marking to do so. While those who wished to exit were allowed to clear. Korir also decried that the examiners wake up at 4 am and finish marking for the day at 10 p.m.

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