By Our Reporter
The stage appears set to sack non-performing teachers and Heads of schools from Teachers Service Commission (TSC) payroll after County Directors were ordered to submit analysed results for 2017 KCPE, KCSE and Primary Teacher Education examinations.
The Commission has directed County Directors to submit Mean score for each school in their areas of jurisdiction; Mean score for each Sub-county, and overall County Mean; the top 50 performing and lowest 50 performing schools in their respective counties.They have also been asked to hand in report on strategies they are putting in place to address poor performance, and most importantly, strategies they are putting in place to sustain and to improve performance.
The analysed results were to be submitted to the Directorate of Teacher Management by January 22nd, 2018, but due to unexplained reason(s), the reports have not been handed in.
The analysed results would assist to gauge the actual performance of Heads teachers, Principals, and in particular tutors in their teaching subjects.
It is on the basis of this report that TSC will make recommendations whether a teacher or Head of institution should be awarded a promotion, demoted, reprimanded, interdicted, referred for retraining, or dismissed from service all together.
In an Internal Memo (TSC/DTM/KNEC/62) dated January 31st, 2018, the Acting Director – Teacher Management, Mary Rotich orders County Directors to submit the reports without further delay.
“Reference is made to our memo REF/TSC/DTM/KNEC/62 dated January 11th, 2018 in which you were required to submit analysed results for KCPE, KCSE and PTE 2017 in your county. It has been noted with a lot of concern that you have not complied with the time lines in this exercise.
“You are required to submit analysed results to this office on or before February 2nd, 2018,” states Rotich in the memo copied to Commission Secretary/Chief, Executive, Nancy Macharia.
The directive to the county bosses to hand in analysed results for national examinations has since been backed by the Commission Secretary who now says thousands of Head teachers, Principals and classroom teachers whose schools consistently post poor examination results risk losing their jobs.
The Commission boss has warned that school heads who do not meet targets set in their signed Performance Contracting will be fired.
The Secretary said teachers whose subjects trail in performance in KCPE and KCSE examinations will not be spared either as TSC moves to radically streamline teaching and learning in all Public schools.
The top Commission official said TSC cannot continue recycling Head teachers and Principals whose institutions do not perform.
“To achieve academic improvement in schools, these Heads will have to exit the service,” said Macharia.
The Code of Regulations for Teachers (2015) among other issues states that teachers’ performance will be appraised based on the implementation of the curriculum with those who score poorly facing the sack.
The Performance Contracting (PC) and Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) are designed to be used by the Commission to effect promotion, deployment, dismissal, retraining and other rewards for teachers.
Any teacher who consistently displays poor performance or adverse appraisal rating may after due process have his/her services terminated.
