The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is grappling with delays in the recruitment of Junior Secondary School Teachers with the pioneer Grade 7 learners of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) learners joining today.
According to reports, the Commission could use primary school teachers (P1 teachers) to teach in Grade 7.
Admission of Grade 7 learners started today across the country but the Commission is yet to complete the recruitment drive and deploy the 30,000 teachers scheduled to teach in the newly introduced section of schools.
Recruitment and deployment are slated to happen even up to late February or even the month of March.
The Government is dealing with a teacher shortage and inadequate facilities across the country with many stakeholders in education saying there are more areas that need addressing despite the government launching guidelines for Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) last week.
However, the government has already directed head teachers to utilize the available resources and infrastructure as the admission of Grade 7 learners is ongoing.
There have been concerns that the 30,000 teachers being recruited could translate to one teacher per school and it may not be enough since some schools are multi-streamed.
According to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education regarding the JSS, learners will be taught nine lessons per day for five days (45 per week) with each lesson lasting 40 minutes.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has issued a warning to primary school teachers not to teach in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) unless they have received deployment letters on the same from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
This piece of information was relayed via a communique signed by Secretary-General Collins Oyuu whereby the teachers’ union said that teachers across the country have been forcefully allocated to Junior Secondary School subjects without proper guidelines from the Teachers Service Commission.
“We are saddened by the cry of our members, who are P1 teachers, saying that they are forced to have lessons in junior secondary schools. We need clear guidelines on how teachers will be awarded for the extra work they will perform,” read part of the memo.
The memo had been copied to all branch chairpersons, executive secretaries, and members. Branch officials were instructed to report any cases of schools forcing teachers to teach in JSS without following guidelines from TSC.
On Saturday the Commission announced to primary school teachers to apply for deployment n JSS.
“Mwalimu, did you know that you can apply for deployment from Primary to Junior Secondary School (JSS) if you have the requisite qualifications?” posted TSC on their Twitter handle.