Primary Schools Teachers have started receiving deployment letters to secondary schools with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
The Commission is planning to deploy practicing P1 teachers who qualify to teach in secondary schools to teach in various secondary schools that have vacancies.
The Commission started implementing the policy in 2019 when 1,000 p1 teachers were deployed each year to teach in secondary schools.
Even though the Commission adopted Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) the Commission still deploys PTE teachers who qualify every year to teach in secondary schools.
In the last three years, 3,000 P1 graduate teachers who qualified have been promoted to teach in secondary schools.
However, the Commission has not made the deployment slots public via advertisement with the P1 teachers who qualify to teach in secondary schools waiting for an advertisement so that they can make their applications.
TSC advertised 1,000 deployment slots in 2019 and 2020 and advertised the same slots last year.
The Commission held talks with the main teachers’ unions recently starting on Wednesday and ending on Friday.
In the meeting, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) current Secretary General Collins Oyuu, pushed the Commission to allow primary school teachers who acquired higher academic qualifications through in-service training to teach in junior secondary schools.
KNUT wanted the Commission to allow primary school teachers who have degrees certificated in secondary option but with (C (Plain) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) to teach in secondary schools.
Besides, the union also wants the Commission to recognize Primary Teacher Education (PTE) teachers who have a Diploma in Secondary option during the deployment exercise.
The talks bore fruit with TSC agreeing to deploy primary school teachers to teach in the Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).
According to the Commission, for teachers to teach in junior secondary they must meet the following requirements.
- Be a Kenyan citizen
- Must be a holder of at least a diploma in education
- Must be a registered teacher with the Teachers Service Commission