The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has begun the process of deploying 1000 PTE teachers to teach in secondary schools across the country.
In the past two years, 2,000 P1 graduate teachers have been promoted to teach in secondary schools following TSC’s advertisement in 2019 and in September 2020 for 1000 vacancies in each of the two years. The Commission has since issued deployment letters to the applicants who were successful.
According to the Career Progression Guidelines for teachers (CPG), the promoted PTE graduate teachers start at job grade C2 at salary scale 34,955 per month and will move to job grade C3 upon completion of three years.
“Successful candidates under this category will be appointed at T-Scale 7, Grade C2 as per the Career Progression Guidelines for Teachers and shall be deployed to secondary schools where vacancies will be available,” said TSC via an advert.
The deployment follows TSC’s advertisement of the available 1,000 deployment vacancies for practicing primary school teachers to apply.
According to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the requirements for an applicant to be promoted and deployed to secondary schools are as follows:
(i) He or she should hold a P1 certificate
(ii) Be a Kenyan citizen.
(iii) Be a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with two teaching subjects;
(iv) Must have attained at least C+ (Plus) mean grade at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent and C+ (Plus) or its equivalent in the two teaching subjects.
(v) Must be serving under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
According to reports, TSC is set to swiftly conclude the deployment process for successful teachers to reduce the burden on teachers due to the 100 percent transition policy that the Government oversees from primary to secondary schools.
All PTE graduates in Kwale County were asked to submit a certified copy of their degree certificate to the County Director’s office at the beginning of the coming week.
“All primary school teachers (graduates) who applied to be moved/deployed to secondary schools are asked to submit a certified copy of their degree certificate by Monday the 9th of August 2021 to the County Office (TSC), read Kwale County Director’s message to all primary school headteachers.
It is still worrying that the rate of qualified–but–not–promoted PTE graduate teachers is still high since more than 6,347 primary school teachers have a degree with a C+ at KCSE and a C+ in the two teaching subjects as of July 2020 and hence are qualified to teach in the current secondary schools.
TSC has been frequently urged to increase the number of teachers that they recruit every year, to reduce the number of qualified teachers who can be promoted from primary schools to secondary schools. These incessant pleas to TSC have been made amid complaints that TSC has not been doing the process in a balanced manner as some teachers claim some counties have been side-lined.
However, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has responded through their Chief Executive officer who has said that the vacancies are filled competitively with the aim of promoting values, fairness, non-discrimination, and equity.
“The criteria use in promotion of teachers include the availability of budget/funds; the existence of vacancies in the authorized establishment; merit and ability as reflected in the teacher’s work performance; academic and professional qualification among others.” Said Dr. Macharia.
In July, TSC reminded primary school teachers that they are in the Commission’s plans and revealed their plan as the Competency-Based Curriculum takes shape in primary schools. The first cohort of learners under the CBC is also approaching secondary education.
Now Primary school teacher who has Ph.D.’s, Masters, Bachelor’s Degrees, and Diplomas in various academic-related disciplines are assured of teaching in secondary schools with TSC announcing their plan of deploying more of the primary teachers in a report.
Pressed to reveal their Preparedness as regards the integration of the CBC in secondary schools, the TSC released a report dubbed Status Report on Teacher Preparedness for Competence-Based Curriculum Implementation which was presented to the Parliamentary Committee on Education.
In the report, TSC revealed that it shall deploy P1 teachers who have Diploma certificates, Higher Diplomas, undergraduate Degrees, Post Graduate Diplomas, Masters, and PhDs to teach at Junior secondary schools (JSS).
The following categories of teachers shall benefit immensely if TSC keeps its promise.
- Teachers who studied Diploma or Degree in Early Childhood Education at the Universities or in ECDE training colleges.
- Teachers who studied in Special Needs Education (SNE).
- Teachers who studied Diploma or Degree Secondary option but did not have at least C+ in KCSE and/or C+ in the two teaching subjects.
- Teachers with Masters and PhDs but still teaching in primary schools.
- Teachers who studied Diploma or Degree in Education (Primary Option).
Primary schools with ample infrastructure that can host a junior secondary school (JSS) without any problems will undergo upgrading. On the other hand, schools will have fewer learners and live close to each other will be merged and infrastructure in one of them enhanced to host a JSS.
However, there will still be schools that will host both primary and junior secondary hosted in the same school.
All these are being done in light of the upcoming double intake in 2023 when the Grade 6 learners will move to junior secondary while Class Six learners in the current 8-4-4 education system will also join Form One after doing their KCPE examination.