The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has made the process of approving and transferring delocalized teachers back to their home counties a continuous process.
Even though TSC has a policy of approving transfer requests of teachers and those delocalized at the end of the year and academic term, this is now set to change as Regional Directors have now been directed to keep approving transfer requests for teachers who applied.
The Commission is making haste to comply with orders to reroute delocalized teachers as directed by Members of Parliament (MPs).
In the last two weeks or so, transfer letters have been finding their way into the offices of TSC County Directors sent to the delocalized teachers.
Following the National Assembly’s decision, the Commission has since suspended the delocalization and transfer policy which had it difficult to transfer delocalized teachers.
However, teachers who have been seeking to be transferred from one region to another are still experiencing difficulties.
TSC announced mass transfers that affected 14,613 teachers who had been affected by the delocalization policy.
TSC Secretary Dr Nancy Macharia said that 12,019 teachers will be placed in inter-county transfers which will be affected by the Regional Director of Education.
In addition, 2,594 teachers will be placed in the inter-regional transfers which will be effected at the Commission’s headquarters. 226 of these are secondary school principals.
As of last week, newly recruited teachers employed on permanent and pensionable terms have already been posted. They have been placed in areas closer to their homes except for those in secondary schools which depends on subject combinations.
This comprises 1,000 primary school teachers hired on permanent and pensionable terms and 4,000 others employed on internship.
21,550 posts for teacher interns to junior secondary schools and 9,000 posts on permanent and pensionable terms of service for secondary school teachers have also been posted to junior secondary schools.
On the 25th of January, the Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula said that the delocalization policy is illegal since it was not approved in Parliament.
This forced the Commission to begin transferring teachers even if they had served less than five years or even if they lack a replacement.
Delocalized teachers in some counties have not been rerouted due to delays or their transfers being blocked despite having complied with the requirements of the Commission.
These counties include Trans Nzoia, Bomet, Laikipia, Nandi, Bungoma, Kakamega, Siaya, Taita Taveta, Vihiga, Samburu, Nyandarua and Narok.
Recently, around 200 teachers from West Pokot teachers working in Trans Nzoia County marched to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) officers in Kitale demanding transfers.
The teachers, mainly primary school teachers complained that despite the fact that delocalization had been abolished, the Commission had not granted them transfers to their home counties.
However, TSC officials turned the teachers away, saying that they should go back to their workstations.
Led by one John Mutai, a teacher at Cheptandan Primary School, the teachers complained that the delocalization policy had caused them hardship citing the break up of families.
The Teachers blamed the Commission for delaying their transfers despite the government’s directive for the Commission to abolish the delocalization policy and reroute the delocalized teachers back to their home counties.
“Other teachers in other counties have been rerouted back to their home counties but TSC has refused to let us go back to our home county,” protested Kimtai.
They claimed that delocalization caused split-ups of families and suggested that transferring them back to their home counties would fix them.
“My family has had a lot of issues since I was transferred to Trans Nzoia County. My husband suspects, I am unfaithful to him, and we are asking TSC to move us back to save our marriages,” said one of the teachers.
Some of the teachers said that they wanted to be rerouted to their homes so that they could take care of their elderly parents and property.
“Some of us have elderly parents who need our care. We have also lost our investments at home,” said another teacher who teaches at Munyaka Primary School.
The teachers said that they had been denied the opportunity to benefit from hardship allowance.
They also said that they were not getting allowance as is the case in West Pokot.
The teachers even claimed that some of their colleagues had died out of frustration.
Some of the teachers with disabilities said that it was unfair for the Commission to ignore their problems.
The teachers said that they would camp at the TSC offices until the Commission’s officials listened to their issues.
“We are going to camp here until we get transfer letters from TSC,” said one of the teachers who had been protesting.
The TSC County Director Ali Jamal was not reachable for comment or even through calls or SMS.
It remains to be seen what the response from TSC will be to the issues raised by the protesting teachers.