TSC Issues Circular on Changes Made To Recruitment of Pnp and Intern Teachers
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has issued a circular regarding changes made to the recruitment of permanent and pensionable and Intern teachers.
The following is the circular:
RECRUITMENT OF TEACHERS AND TEACHER INTERNS – DECEMBER, 2022
The Commission has advertised a total of 35,550 posts for recruitment of teachers and teacher interns as follows:-
- 9,000 secondary school posts on permanent and pensionable terms to be posted to junior secondary schools.
- 1,000 primary school posts on permanent and pensionable terms.
- 21,550 secondary school posts on internship to be posted to Junior Secondary Schools.
- 4,000 primary school posts on internship.
Details of distribution of the posts are available in the TSC website. Ensure the adverts are displayed in all TSC offices down to the zonal level. As you embark on this exercise, you are required to note the following:
1. Guidelines for recruitment of teachers 2022/2023
Guidelines for recruitment of teachers – primary and post primary institutions for both teachers on permanent and pensionable terms of service and interns have been reviewed in line with the current recruitment. For more information, you are required to download and study in readiness for the recruitment exercise. Studying the guidelines would also enable insightful discussion and clarification during the sensitization of members of the selection panel. Among the changes in the reviewed Recruitment Guidelines are as follows:
i) The Score Guide has included qualification, age, length of service, CBC Upgrade in primary schools. The maximum scores for the areas is 5, 25, 70, 5 respectivey.
ii) For Secondary Schools the face-to-face interview which involves a maximum of 5 marks on communication has been removed.
iii) Disability status has been removed as a tie-breaker since applicants with disabilities are competing amongst themselves.
2. Applicants with disabilities
The Commission is committed to ensure that at least 5% of all advertised posts are filled by applicants with disabilities. In this regard, 5% of the posts allocated to each county MUST be set aside for the recruitment of teachers with disabilities. Accordingly, the score guides for both teachers with disabilities and others are similar. Teachers with disabilities are only competing against themselves and not against the rest of applicants. A report on the number set aside per sub-county and the number of applicants recruited will be required together with other recruitment documents.
3. Teachers Currently Serving as Teacher Interns
The Commission has resolved to directly recruit all the teachers serving as interns on permanent and pensionable (P&P) terms of service. These teacher interns are therefore not required to apply.
The total number of the employment forms for Pup will be inclusive of the serving teachers interns who shall be recruited directly.
For those serving in secondary schools, upon employment, they will be deployed to teach in Junior Secondary Schools within the counties where they are currently serving.
In the case of teacher interns serving in primary schools, upon employment, they may be retained in their current station or be deployed to any primary school where their services are required within the counties or regions where they are currently serving.
County Directors are required to prepare a list of all serving interns within their counties who are currently on payroll and have not been absorbed on Pap. These teachers should fill the Application for Employment forms and be issued with Offer of Employment Letters before the main recruitment commences. File Copy of the Offer of Employment Letter, Application for Employment Forms together with all the relevant attachments shall be submitted to the TSC Headquarters as per the recruitment roadmap.
4. Management of the Recruitment of Teachers in Undertaking the recruitment of teachers:
a) The TSC County Director in conjunction with TSC Sub-County Directors shall identify interview venues, dates and time for submission to the Headquarters. These interview details shall be published on the TSC Website for reference by the applicants;
b) The TSC County Directors upon receipt of lists of applicants from the headquarters shall share with the Sub-County Directors within their respectful counties;
c) The TSC Sub-County Director upon receipt of applicants’ lists from their respective sub-counties shall constitute a sub-cunty selection panel;
d)The TSC Sub-County Director shall inform the applicants on the interview venue, date and time through Short Messaging Service (SMS), 7 days before the interview.
e) The TSC Sub-County Selection Panel shall conduct the interview/verification of documents;
f) The TSC Sub-County Director shall submit the list of successful applicants and the required recruitment documents to the TSC County Director for vetting;
g) The TSC Sub-County Director/TSC Regional Director, Nairobi shall issue the Offer of Employment/Internship letters;
h) The TSC County Director shall submit all the required recruitment documents to the headquarters within the timelines.
5. Shortlisting of Applicants
All applicants are eligible to attend interviews. The TSC Sub-County Directors in consultation with the TSC County Directors shall analyze the lists of applicants in their respective Sub-Counties and make decision on how they shall conduct the verification exercise within the timelines before communicating with the applicants through Short Message Service (SMS). The message shall include interview venue, date and time.
6. Verification of Documents
Due to the changes on the score guides, the applicants’ lists shall have no scores. TSC Sub-County Selection Panel shall keenly verify the applicants’ documents and award marks as per the review score guides. From the exercise, the TSC Sub-County Director shall generate merit lists and recommend successful candidates to the TSC County Director for the issuance of Offer of Employment/Internship Letters. The successful candidates shall be in the four (4) categories of recruitment as follows: 9000/DEC/2022 (Pup, JSS); 21550/DEC/2022 (Internship, JSS); IOOO/DEC/2022 (Pup, Prima” and 400/DEC/2022 (Internship Prima”. Categories for recruitment MUST be clearly indicated on all the lists.
7. Distribution of Primary School Posts
The Commission has distributed primary school posts to the sub-county level for both permanent and pensionable, and the internship term. The list of this distribution will be shared with specific County Directors. The distribution MUST be adhered to. The Commission is aware that, as late as March, 2022, more sub-counties have been established in an effort to enhance coordination of the functions of the National Government.
These new sub-counties have not been captured on the Teachers Management Information System (TMIS). The new sub-counties include Korr, Sagante, Uran, Imenti East, Nkuene/Mitunguu, Abogeta, Igoji, Golbo, Kotulo, Sankuri, Khalalio, Sericho, Oldonyiro, Lokichoggio, Suguta, Lokiriama, Aroo, Suba Central and Bothai among others. It is expected that County Directors in the affected counties ensure that data on all the sub-counties yet to capture are immediately captured for future reference. Consequently, therefore, the Sub-County Directors in liaison with their respective County Directors must ensure that advertised posts are re-distributed appropriately in a fair manner.
8. Distribution of Junior Secondary School Posts
Teaching posts for botn PnP and Internship for Junior Secondary School (JSS) have been allocated per county and sub-county. The allocation of the posts is based on the number of grade seven (7) classes within a county and its sub-counties. Distribution of posts by sub-counties within a given county shall be shared with the County Directors by Wednesday 4th January, 2023 for action. The new sub-counties whose data has not been captured as earlier discussed MUST be considered in the distribution depending on the number of grade seven (7) classes.
9. Merit Lists
All applicants who attend the verification exercise shall be included in the merit lists. The reviewed recruitment guidelines provide for primary and post-primary merit lists for both Pup and Internship. The Regional Directors, County Directors and Sub-County Directors are required to compile and maintain their respective merit lists using the format provided in the reviewed recruitment guidelines. The new merit lists will supersede the earlier generated merit lists.
The County and Sub-County merit lists shall be sent to TSC Headquarters in soft copies (in excel) through dirstamng@tsc.go.ke and copied to ddstamngp@tsc.go.ke. TSC County Director will be expected to submit duly signed hard copies of the merit lists and minutes of Selection Panels to the Director Staffing together with duly filled Application for Employment Forms. The merit lists shall be availed to members of public upon request, taking into consideration the provisions of the Data Protection Act, 2019. Template for the submission of merit lists is attached herein (Appendices I& II for primary) and (Appendices III& IV for JSS). County Directors and Regional Directors shall customize the Sub-County templates.
10. Vetting at the County Level
The County Directors are expected to ensure that thorough vetting of documents is done as provided in the attached Check lists (Appendices V BC V/ for primary) and (VI & VIII for JSS). Vetting includes confirmation of academic certificates to ensure that only the qualified candidates are recruited. Those involved in vetting shall be required to sign the Verification Data Sheet (Appendices X, X, XI & XII) Signing of the Verification Data Sheet is a requirement for the on-boarding of the newly recruited teachers. It is important that officers sign the Verification Data Sheet only after confirming that an applicant in question meets the minimum requirements for recruitment.
11. Confirmation of the Registration Status of the Applications
As per the recruitment guidelines, TSC Sub-County Directors are required to confirm registration status of the applicants online through https://tsconline.tsc.go.ke before an applicant fills the Application for Employment form or signs an Internship Agreement. Failure to confirm registration status of the applicants has led to cancellation of Application for Employment forms after they are filled by persons who are not eligible for employment as per the applicable recruitment guidelines.
12. Change of Subject Combination
The Competence Based Curriculum is being rolled out at Grade 7 (JSS) in January, 2023. There is no teacher currently teaching at Junior Secondary School. The target for this recruitment is to ensure all 30,550 Grade 7 classes get at least a teacher. For this reason, the recruitment exercise will not take into consideration subject combinations. For this reason, the recruitment exercise will not take into consideration subject combinations. TSC Sub-County Selection Panel shall therefore not discriminate against applicants on the basis of subject specialization as long as the applicant is a qualified teachers in accordance to the current recruitment guidelines.
13. Recruitment Road Map
The Road Map for the recruitment exercise is herewith attached (Appendix XIIO) The Commission wished to lay emphasis on the need to ensure that all newly recruited teachers report to schools on 1st February 2023. Ensure strict adherence to the timelines. This calls for sacrifice in making use of the limited time.
14. Posting of teachers to Junior Secondary Schools
Posting of the newly recruited teachers to Junior Secondary Schools will be guided by the Learning Areas that a teacher is required to teach as per the guide published on the TSC Website. TSC County Director MUST ensure that in case a school has more than one stream, teachers posted are of different specialties, i.e. Humanities, Sciences, Languages, Mathematics or Technical to ensure their optimal utilization.
15. Posting of Primary School Teachers
Teachers recruited in a given county shall be posted within the county. In case a county is overstaffed in the understanding of the TSC County Director, the officer shall consult the respective TSC Regional Director for guidance. The TSC Regional Director shall be facilitated to post the excess teachers to another County within the Region.
16. Offer of Employment an Offer of Internship Letters
Processing of Offer of Employment and Offer of Internship Letters shall be done at the County level. The TSC County Director shall sign the Offer Ltters and submit file copies together with other recruitment ocuments. The Offer Letters for serving teachers interns being converted to permanent and pensionabe terms of service shall have no folio (e.g. TSC/111111) while for those who have never been engaged by the Commission shall bear Folio 2 (e.g. TSC/111111/2) Two Copies of the Letter Offer shall be signed.
One copy shall be forwarded by the TSC Sub-County Director (where the teacher will be posted) to the teacher. The second copy shall be submitted together woth other recruitment documents for filing at the Headquarters. The TSC County Director and the TSC Sub-County Director shall be required to photocopy the letters for their files. Template for the appointment letter and Offer of Internship Letter will be provided, ensure that each candidate fill only one Application for Employment form or receives only one Offer of Internship letter.
The Offer of Employment Letter shall be done on the special papers. County Directors have already been issued with special papers for the exercise. Care must be taken to avoid wastage due to limited resources. Templates for the Offer of Employment letters. Offer of Internship letters and Internship Agreement shall be shared later.
17. Submission of Recruitment Documents
Recruitment documents shall be submitted as per the attached submission schedule (Appendix XIV). TSC County Directors should ensure that they strictly adhere to the schedule to avoid crowding at the receiving desks. In addition, they are expected to ensure that all required documents are attached to the Application for Employment Forms including the Offer of Employment Letter, Internship Agreement, Offer of Internship Letter and Lists of Recruited/Successful applicants per category (APPENDICES XV – Pry Pap, XVI Pry Internship, XVI/ – Sec Pap & XVIII Internship).
TSC County Directors shall be held personally responsible for any missing but required document that may lead to delays in the onboarding of teachers. It is important to arrive at the Headquarters the earliest possible time to ensure that all the recruitment documents are received as per the schedule. Officers at the Headquarters will be similarly advised on the same.
18. Entry Reports
Recruitment process ends with the on-boarding of the newly recruited teachers. The Commission no longer accepts hard copies of the Entry Reports. It is the duty of the Regional Directors to ensure that all the teachers recruited within their regions have been entered on the Posting, Entry and Exit Reports Module. Wrong capturing of registration numbers, disability status, Application for Employment Serial Numbers together with slow or no follow-up of reporting of teachers through the Module are some of the challenges that face the use of this innovation. You are required to take up the responsibility of ensuring that entries are made correctly and thereafter entry reports are submitted on time.
The Offer Letters should not be released to the newly recruited teachers before they are posted on the Posting, Entry Exit Reports Module. Sub-County Directors must also post the teachers to schools and follow-up to ensure that the Heads of Institutions (HOIs) submit the Entry Reports immediately the teacher reports for duty.
19. Security during the Recruitment Process
To ensure that there is security during the exercise, the County Directors and the Sub-County Directors are expected to liaise with the County Commissioners for the provision of security.
20. Personal Accident Insurance Cover
You are required to note that, the requirement for the internship applicants to have a Personal Accident Cover at the time of application has been reviewed. Only the successful applicants will be required to have the Personal Accident Cover. A copy of the cover MUST be among the internship documents to be submitted to the Headquarters
21. Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (CBC Upgrade)
The Commission is awarding scores for applicants in primary school posts who have completed the CBC Upgrade. A list of the qualified candidates who have gone through the CBC Upgrade programme have been shared for your reference (Appendix XIX)
In case of any candidate contesting the list, you are encourage to be confirming any evidence he/she avails and make informed decision.
22. Complaints Management
The TSC Sub-County Directors must ensure that the recruitment process is as transparent and fair as possible. They must avoid conducting the process in a manner that may raise complaints. In case a complaint is raised, TSC County Director must deal with the complaint exhaustively. This will ensure that there are no appeals communicated to the Headquarters for management. However, in case of a challenging complaint, you are required to communicate with the Commission through dirstaffing@tsc.go.ke for further guidance.
RITA W. WAHOME
DIRECTOR OF STAFFING
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