The Teacher’s service commission updates hardship areas regularly. The commission maps various areas while considering different factors. This areas also include the arid and semi-arid places that are usually affected by famine and/or terrorism
Teachers posted in these areas are paid a monthly hardship allowance that acts as a motivating factor since they face life threatening conditions that range from poor working environment to health threats.
However, the Commission recently excluded Nyandarua county, Muranga county, Kandara sub-county, Kigumo sub-county, and Nyahururu from hardship areas due to improved infrastructure. Therefore, teachers posted in these areas will no longer get a monthly hardship allowance.
Some of the factors considered are:
Limited services and social amenities
High level of insecurity and/or probability to security threats.
Harsh climate conditions such as floods, drought.
Lack of sufficient food.
Inadequate means of transport and communication networks.
Below is a list of counties that have been listed under hardship areas;
Mandera County
Turkana County
SamburU County
Wajir County
West Pokot County
Narok County
Garissa County
Marsabit County
Isiolo County
Tana River County
Lamu County
Kilifi County
Kwale County
Taita Taveta County
Recently, the commission added 4 new hardship areas due to the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The added counties include,
Baringo North. The areas include;
Tiaty East, Tiaty West and Marigat sub-counties.
Kajiado county- loitoktok, mashuuru and Kajiado west
Kitui County- Mumoni, Mutito North and Teikuru sub-counties
Homa baycounty- suba and Mbita sub counties
Allowances
The hardship allowance is paid at a flat rate. In 2014, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission reviewed hardship allowances and abolished the percentage of basic pay.
The table below shows TSC hardship allowance per job group
NOTE: Not all schools in the above listed counties are captured by the Teachers Service Commission as Hardship centers
