Mass Transfer of school administrators looms – TSC

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is planning to do a reshuffle of school administrators who have stayed in one station for a long time before schools reopen in January 2021.

TSC County Directors are under instructions already to come up with a list of school administrators i.e. headteachers and their deputies for proper balancing before schools reopen come next year. TSC Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Nancy Macharia announced this on Wednesday 9th of December 2020.

She said the transfers will not affect headteachers and their deputies who are sick as well as those who are close to retiring.

However, TSC is not planning to transfer the school administrators outside their counties. The transfers will be within the counties where they are stationed. One of the TSC County Directors did not rule out the delocalization of school administrators. He revealed that the plan is to reshuffle administrators who have stayed in one station for a long time.

He said that some school administrators, mostly senior teachers who earn a large sum in their group but are not involved in any administrative tasks when other schools need those services.

Deputy school heads are scheduled to attend interviews for promotions between 5th and 9th December. The interviews had been rescheduled following the surge of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

TSC revealed that delocalization is not intended to punish teachers, but it is aimed at promoting national cohesion. TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia while appearing before the Senate Committee on Education two months before the Senate Committee on Education defended the delocalization of teachers arguing that it is meant to promote national cohesion rather than punish.

Macharia acknowledged that transfers had their flaws in the beginning, but the urgency has fixed them. “Delocalization is simply a transfer; we want to ensure that teachers do not teach in their locality for their whole teaching life but are exposed to other cultures,” said Mrs. Macharia.

The CEO revealed that transfers of teachers to far-flung regions from their counties have since stopped. For primary school teachers, tutors are transferred from one sub-county to another within the same county or in nearby counties close to their home counties.

“Secondary school teachers who are promoted to senior positions are the ones transferred to other counties,” she said.

The delocalization programme, career development programme, and teachers appraisals are some of the policies that have created a rift between the commission (TSC) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).

KNUT opposed the way delocalization was done in recent years saying that it punished teachers. The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce report is discouraging local recruitment and staffing of teachers.

The task force report suggests cultural exchange and integration between different schools so that learners appreciate different cultures and dynamics in the country.

“On the recruitment of teachers, the Ministry of Education should adopt policy guidelines that discourage local recruitment and staffing of teachers, depending on the circumstances,” recommends the report.

There had been disagreements between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over the delocalization policy, with TSC saying it is nothing new.

The BBI taskforce indicates ethnic antagonisms ad competition, as the elephant in the room as far as Kenya’s success and the very continuity of the nation is concerned.

In order to strengthen social ties and unity among communities, stakeholders recommend the Ministry of Education, through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), review the curricula to introduce and integrate the teaching of national unity, character, and cohesion to learners during early or formative years.

Social integration is also boosted by the proposal of the review of policies in the education sector more so regarding admission to schools and institutions of higher learning. Stakeholders also agreed with the BBI report that deliberate efforts should be made to come up with a national outlook on the student and staff population in every school.


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