New TSC Hardship Areas and their allowance rates 2020-2022
Teachers Service Commission(TSC) being an independent body charged with the responsibility of recruiting and remitting salaries for civil servants usually extends it’s kind arms towards teachers and other TSC employees such as Quassols who work in far flung marginalized regions dubbed unfavorable for human residence.
The commission does so by offering an extra pat on these employees’ shoulders in terms of hardship allowances.
However, not all far flung regions are designated as hardship areas since the government uses specific criteria to determine whether a locality is fit to be classified under Hardship areas or not.
Amongstthe conditions that are considered include the following:
Lack of or unavailability or inaccessibility to food
Inadequate transport and communication network
Limited basic social services and amenities
Persistent harsh climatic conditions like flooding, landslides and drought
Insecurity and high possibility of security threats.
Teachers working in these areas do face a number of challenges though.
Lack of water,flooding and hostile living conditions are some of the difficulties these teachers have to endure in order to prosecute their mandate.
Late 2014, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, SRC, then led by Sarah Serem reviewed hardship allowance to be paid at a flat rate for all equivalent job groups. The Commission effectively abolished the pegging of the hardship allowance as a percentage of basic pay.
The table below summarizes the monthly hardship allowance rates that are paid to teachers working in hardship areas; per job group:
TSC Group Hardship
Allowance in
Ksh. Per month
1 Grade B5 Job group G 6,600
2 Grade C1, JG H 8,200
3 Grade C2 JG I 10,900
4 Grade C3 JG J 12,300
5 Grade C4 JG K 14,650
6 Grade C5 JG L 17,100
7 Grade D1 JG M 27,300
8 Grade D2 JG N 27,300
9 Grade D3 JG P 31,500
10 Grade D4 JG Q 31,500
11 Grade D5 JG R 38,100
TSC designated hardship areas.
TSC has designated various areas as hardship. The areas considered as hardship include those that are prone to terrorism, famine and aridity. Currently, teachers teaching in schools located in some parts of the following counties receive monthly hardship allowances.
S/No. Area/County
1 Garissa county
2 Isiolo county
3 Kilifi county
4 Kwale county
5 Lamu county
6 Mandera county
7 Marsabit county
8 Narok county
9 Samburu county
10 Taita Taveta
11 Tana River county
12 Turkana county
13 Wajir county
14 West Pokot county
