Teachers working in hardship areas get a special allowance called ‘hardship allowance’. Teacher Service Commission, TSC pays extra allowances (hardship allowances) to teachers working in areas classified as hardship.
Hardship allowance is paid in an effort to compensate for the cost of living for teachers working in areas designated as hardship. The Teachers working in hardship areas face a myriad of challenges; from lack of water, and flooding to hostile living conditions characterized by constant spates of attacks.
TSC 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 TSC has specified various areas as hardship areas. The regions listed as hardship comprise those that are in arid regions and 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.
In 2021, the Government revised the hardship areas, scrapping some on the ground that they can no longer become considered to be hardship areas now that they have undergone major development in terms of availability of social amenities and all-weather roads.
In December 2014, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC, reviewed hardship allowance to be paid at a flat rate for all equivalent grades/ job groups. The Commission effectively abolished the pegging of the hardship allowance as a percentage of basic pay.
The new list of counties mapped by TSC as hardship areas are; Mandera county, Turkana, Samburu, Wajir, West Pokot, Narok, Garissa, Marsabit, Isiolo, Tana River, Lamu, Kilifi, Kwale, and Taita Taveta county.
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, and 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.
