Following complaints about unpaid allowances for teachers who marked the national examinations for the 2023-2024 academic year, the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA) has said the issue is being handled. The marking of the exam papers was completed on August 19. Some of the exam markers said they had waited for more than one month. Some of the markers had taken overdrafts from their cooperative Umwalimu SACCO against their allowances. “The process of paying the allowances to those who graded the national exams has begun and is ongoing,” NESA and Umwalimu SACCO said in a joint statement. “A teacher who has taken out a loan or overdraft against their allowance will repay it when they receive that allowance, and the amount borrowed will be deducted.” ALSO READ: Girls outperform boys in PLE exams, as boys lead in O-Level If a teacher with an overdraft receives their monthly salary before their allowance has been paid, “the Umwalimu Sacco system will automatically deduct the amount owed, as it does not differentiate between salary and allowances that may have arrived in the account.” In such cases, the cooperative will promptly return the deducted amount to the teacher’s account because the deduction is unrelated to the allowance earned for grading the national exams. The statement said that if a certain amount has been mistakenly deducted from the teacher’s account, “it typically takes about 24 hours for the funds to be refunded to their account.” More than 2,500 teachers marked Primary Leaving Examinations, according to lists available on NESA's website. Up to 10,000 teachers marked Ordinary Level national exams, while more than 2,000 marked the exams for Advanced Level and 1,600 marked the exams for technical secondary schools.
