Some primary school teachers have been going through a hard time for a long time after completing degrees and missing out on recruitment.
The teachers graduated with degrees despite having a mean grade of C in their KCSE examination.
Automatic promotion for primary and secondary school teachers was stopped for those who had upgraded their certificates.
This is because the government directed the Teachers Service Commission was directed to halt all promotions that are based on academic qualifications. This meant that Schemes of Service (SoS) which had guaranteed automatic promotion for teachers was dropped.
The SoS was replaced with the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) for teachers. The TSC Chief Executive Officer revealed that the Commission values a teacher’s performance on duty than just mere academic papers.
As a result, the Commission has been pushing for the improvement and training of teachers on the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD).
With the CPG being made more superior to the SoS, Diploma teachers and teachers who have upgraded their certificates have complained consistently ever since. These teachers comprise those with Diploma and Degree in Special Needs Education, in Early Childhood Development Education, Education (Primary Option) and those with Diploma in Education (Secondary Option).
These teachers only received a simple acknowledgement from TSC for their efforts.
With the Commission allowing those teachers who have upgraded by studying degrees to join secondary schools, those who had done so despite having a mean grade of C (Plain) have been left in the cold for quite some time.
When teachers with grade C upgraded to degrees, universities like Nairobi, Kenyatta, Mount Kenya and Pwani were still offering courses to students who had a mean grade of C (Plain).
Reportedly, TSC is planning to deploy thousands of teachers from the primary level to the secondary school level by the year 2023.
This was revealed in a report called the Status Report on Teacher Preparedness for Competence-Based Curriculum Implementation. The Report was presented before the Parliamentary Committee on Education where the Commission declared that it will deploy P1 teachers who have Diplomas, undergraduate degrees, Higher Diplomas, Post-Graduate Diplomas, Masters and PhDs to teach at junior secondary schools (JSS).