Teachers Buoyed as Push to Double Civil Servants’ Maternity Leave to 180 Days Could Reshape TSC Policy
A fresh legislative proposal seeking to double maternity leave for civil servants from 90 to 180 days has stirred quiet optimism among teachers across the country, many of whom believe the ripple effects could eventually reach their own employment terms with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
The proposal, championed by Nominated Member of Parliament Dorothy Muthoni, seeks to extend the standard maternity leave enjoyed by civil servants from the current 90 days to a full six months, or 180 days.
Muthoni has argued that the extension is long overdue, insisting that new mothers require significantly more time to recover physically from childbirth while also bonding with and caring for their newborns during the critical early months of life.
According to her reasoning, a longer maternity leave period would also allow mothers uninterrupted time to breastfeed their babies, a practice widely recommended by health experts as essential for infant development and immunity in the first six months of life.
While the bill, if it becomes law, would directly affect civil servants, teachers under the TSC have followed the developments with keen interest.
This is not because they currently lag behind civil servants in maternity benefits, in fact, they are already ahead in that respect, but because history has shown that policy shifts affecting one arm of public service often trigger a domino effect across other government agencies, including the TSC.
Where Teachers Currently Stand
Unlike civil servants, who currently enjoy 90 days of maternity leave, TSC teachers have for some time enjoyed a more generous allocation of 120 days.
This improvement did not come by accident. It was the product of hard-fought negotiations between teachers’ unions and the TSC during the 2021 to 2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) cycle.
Under that agreement, female teachers saw their maternity leave days rise from the previous 90 days to the current 120 days, a 30-day improvement that unions at the time hailed as a major win for teacher welfare.
The same CBA also extended benefits to male teachers. Paternity leave, which had previously stood at 14 days, was increased to 21 days, also with full pay, granted once a year within the duration of the spouse’s maternity leave.
This meant that fathers among the teaching fraternity could take a full three weeks off work to support their spouses and newborns without any loss of income, a benefit that was, at the time, considered progressive by public service standards.
So while the debate around Muthoni’s bill centers on civil servants specifically, many teachers are watching closely because if the National Assembly approves doubling civil servants’ maternity leave to 180 days, it would place teachers, who currently sit at 120 days, in what many would view as an uncomfortable position, suddenly behind civil servants rather than ahead of them.
This possibility is precisely what has generated buzz within teacher circles, with many predicting that unions would be quick to push for a corresponding review of the TSC CBA maternity provisions to restore parity, or even to negotiate a fresh advantage.
Should the civil servants’ bill sail through Parliament, it is widely expected that pressure would mount on the TSC to revisit both maternity and paternity leave allocations in future negotiations, ensuring teachers do not fall behind their counterparts in the broader public service.
A Benefit Already Addressed, But Not Forgotten
Interestingly, one of the key arguments Muthoni has used to justify her proposed bill, that longer maternity leave allows mothers uninterrupted time to breastfeed, is an issue that TSC and teachers’ unions had already begun addressing separately, albeit through a different mechanism.
Under the current CBA covering the 2025 to 2029 period, signed in July last year, teachers’ unions and the TSC did not extend the number of maternity leave days beyond the existing 120. However, they did introduce a fresh, and arguably innovative, provision aimed squarely at supporting nursing mothers after they return to duty.
This came in the form of a circular issued by the Commission, formally addressing the needs of lactating teachers resuming work after maternity leave.
The circular, Circular No. 13/2025, dated 18th August 2025, was signed by TSC’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Evaleen Mitei, and addressed to all teachers nationwide. It outlines a clear framework for supporting nursing mothers as they transition back into the classroom after their maternity leave elapses.
According to the circular, the Code of Regulations for Teachers (2015), read alongside the CBA covering 2025 to 2029, already makes specific provisions for maternity, paternity, and preadoptive leave.
The circular notes that all teachers are eligible for only one type of leave at a time, meaning a teacher cannot simultaneously claim two different leave categories.
However, the Commission acknowledged that the period immediately following a teacher’s return to duty after maternity leave presents its own unique challenges, particularly for mothers who are still breastfeeding.
To address this gap, the Commission decided that lactating mothers would be granted a two-hour daily permission for a period of two months immediately following their resumption of duty after completing maternity leave.
This provision is designed specifically to smooth the transition back into full teaching responsibilities while still allowing mothers to attend to the needs of their infants during this delicate window.
The circular is explicit in its intent, stating that the two-hour daily allowance is meant to facilitate a smooth transition for mothers resuming duty after maternity leave, while still ensuring they can attend to the needs of their newborns during working hours.
To ensure the policy is implemented uniformly and without confusion, the circular lays out five clear operational guidelines that both teachers and their supervisors are expected to follow.
First, the two-hour permission takes effect immediately from the date a teacher resumes duty following maternity leave, meaning there is no waiting period or additional bureaucratic delay before the benefit kicks in.
Second, the exact timing of the daily two-hour break is flexible and can be adjusted in consultation with the Head of Institution. This flexibility is important because it allows schools to tailor the arrangement in a way that causes minimal disruption to curriculum delivery, a key concern for school administrators who must balance staffing needs with the welfare of nursing teachers.
Third, teachers seeking to utilize this benefit must formally request it in writing, and the request must be approved by the Head of Institution before it can be exercised. This introduces a layer of accountability and record-keeping, ensuring the benefit is properly documented within each institution.
Fourth, in cases where the Head of Institution themselves is the one requiring the permission, perhaps in a case involving a female principal or headteacher who has just returned from maternity leave, the request must instead be routed through the Sub-County Director of Education for approval.
This ensures that even senior education officials are not left out of the benefit simply because there is no higher-ranking supervisor within their own institution to approve the request.
Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, the circular makes clear that this provision is time-bound. It applies strictly for a period of two months from the date the teacher resumes duty after maternity leave. Beyond this two-month window, the special daily allowance lapses, and teachers are expected to return to their regular working schedules.
In closing, the circular emphasizes that its purpose is to draw attention to what it calls a crucial milestone in the Commission’s teacher management space, framing the policy as part of a broader, evolving commitment to supporting the health and well-being of teachers, particularly new mothers navigating the demanding transition back into full-time teaching duties.
Why Teachers Are Excited Regardless
Given that TSC has already moved to address the breastfeeding concern through the two-hour daily allowance, some might wonder why teachers would still be excited about a bill targeting civil servants’ maternity leave specifically. The answer lies in the broader trajectory of public sector welfare negotiations in Kenya.
Public service benefits rarely move in isolation. When one arm of government, whether it be the National Police Service, the civil service, or parastatals, secures an improvement in a particular welfare area, it often becomes a reference point for other unions and commissions during their own negotiations.
Teachers’ unions, in particular, have historically used comparative benchmarking against civil servants and other public sector employees as a bargaining tool during CBA negotiations with the TSC.
Should Muthoni’s bill pass and civil servants’ maternity leave jump from 90 to 180 days, teachers would suddenly find themselves in a position where their current 120-day allocation, once a point of pride and a hard-won gain from the 2021-2025 CBA, would now trail behind civil servants by a full two months.
This is the scenario that has teachers talking, not because their current benefits are inadequate, but because they anticipate that any improvement for civil servants will inevitably become ammunition for their own unions to demand a similar or even greater adjustment when the next CBA negotiation cycle begins.
There is also the paternity leave angle to consider. While Muthoni’s proposal focuses on maternity leave, discussions around extended maternity benefits often reignite parallel conversations about paternity leave as well. Teachers currently enjoy 21 days of paternity leave, up from the previous 14 days, secured in the same 2021-2025 CBA that improved maternity leave.
If maternity leave discussions gain fresh momentum nationally, it is not far-fetched to imagine paternity leave becoming part of the broader conversation too, especially as more countries and organizations move toward recognizing the role fathers play in early childcare.
What Happens Next
For now, Muthoni’s bill remains a proposal, and like all legislative proposals in Kenya, it will need to go through the full parliamentary process, including committee scrutiny, public participation, and eventual voting, before it can become law.
Civil servants’ unions and human resource policy bodies within government are likely to weigh in on the proposal’s feasibility, particularly around questions of cost implications for the public wage bill, staffing continuity in government offices during extended absences, and how the change would be harmonized across different public service categories.
For teachers, the immediate reality remains unchanged. The 120-day maternity leave, the 21-day paternity leave, and the two-hour daily breastfeeding allowance under Circular 13/2025 remain the operative benefits until the next round of CBA negotiations.
However, the conversation sparked by Muthoni’s proposal has undoubtedly added a new data point to future negotiations, one that unions representing teachers are unlikely to ignore.
Whether or not the bill ultimately becomes law, its mere existence has reignited a broader national conversation about how long new mothers, particularly those in demanding professions like teaching and civil service, should be allowed to stay away from work to recover, bond with, and care for their newborns.
For many teachers watching from the sidelines, that conversation alone is reason enough for cautious optimism about what the future might hold for their own maternity and paternity entitlements.