By Education News Team
The recent circular by the TSC Secretary Nancy Macharia to all Commission’s Regional Directors on planned staff balancing gave a number of factors to be considered in teacher transfer.
Among these are the health status of a teacher, length of stay in the current station, family considerations, length of stay since first appointment and the age of the teacher.
TSC now agrees that there is need to give consideration to couples who are employees of the Commission to work in the same neighborhood.
Although this might be seen as yielding to pressure from teacher Unions who for a long time fought against the delocalization, many have welcomed the new policy.
Many families broke up due to the policy that received disapproval from other quarters including many educational advocacy groups.
Many argue the policy was not well thought out as it has had a negative effect not only on the family unit but also on the education sector. It affected the morale of most head teachers and principals with some even opting to retire from service. Others took drastic measures like resigning from service.
KUPPET Executive Secretary Narok Branch Charles Ng’eno, said delocalization was a policy that was never put through public participation and was thus unconstitutional, adding that TSC advisors should understand that a policy should receive support from a majority of the stakeholders.
On matters of health, the circular states that teachers with proven cases of terminal illnesses will be exempted from the transfers out of their current Sub-county work stations. However, Ng’eno said the Commission, through its transfer committee, should also give priority to teachers who prove to have children with health conditions that demand their attention.
He said the exemption of teachers living with disability from transfers is equally welcome.
“Through public participation, the Commission will live up to its vision of a transformative teaching service for quality education,” said Nge’no.
