By Azael Masese
The Teacher Service Commission (TSC) will soon deploy regional co-ordinators in the previous eight provinces.
Once implemented, the policy shift is expected to improve the manner teachers are managed and consequently improve learning outcomes.
Under the new dispensation, County Directors will report to the regional co-ordinators who will in turn link up with the TSC head office in conducting some of its critical roles.
Currently, all the 47 County Directors report directly to the head office, a situation that is thought to delay policy execution.
In conjunction with the County Directors, the regional co-ordinators are expected to oversee teacher recruitment, deployment, and supervision of disciplinary cases.
However, it would also be seen if the commission will divide the vast Rift Valley into two as managing the region has posed serious challenges in the past.
For example, education stakeholders from Kajiado County that neighbours Nairobi had to travel to Nakuru town to access services.
If a similar arrangement is retained, this means that County Directors from as far as Turkana County have to travel to Nakuru to meet the new officers.
During an education event in Embu, TSC Chairperson Dr Lydia Nzomo gave the strongest hint of the policy shift, saying that they are working on the final details of the deployment.
The change in policy, she noted, is informed by the need to decentralize its services to improve learning outcomes.
She stated that decentralization of its services to the grassroots will ensure that no teacher spends class work time to visit the head offices to seek some services.
“As a commission, teacher management functions must be taken closer to the teachers to improve the contact time with the learners and impart the required knowledge,” she said.
She said that they are working on the infrastructure aspect such as the office space before they are deployed.
Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association national chairman, Shem Ndolo said the move was long overdue.
“There are some issues the regional co-ordinator and County Director need to co-ordinate at the regional level on teacher management,” he said.
He further said that since the Ministry of Education already has regional coordinators on the ground, it makes sense for TSC to have the same co-ordinators in the regions.
“We support the move and are optimistic that this will improve performance in national examinations,’ he told Education News on phone.
Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) Chairman Kahi Indimuli said the move could possibly replicate the ministry’s move to post regional co-ordinators.
Indimuli however said that he would not comment on the TSC’s policy issue as their role is only to comply with the same.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) National Vice Chairman Moses Nthurima welcomed the move saying it will enhance teacher management.
“Reporting directly to TSC by the County Directors can create gaps because of time and amount of work handled hence the need for shared responsibility,” he said.
He observed that getting the finer details of the raw data generated by the County Directors, with the creation of these positions is thus a sigh of relief in the sector.
Nthurima stated that managing teachers in the present system is a challenging task for the TSC officers hence the need to create another centre of power.
“It will also enable the officers involved to compare notes and share information to help fine tune the raw data from the field before it reaches the head office,” he said.
A Handbook on decentralized teacher management functions, August 2015 envisages that most services offered by the Commission can be accessed at the county level.
It states that this is part of an ongoing restructuring systems for effective service delivery and reorganising its operations to focus on decentralizing its key processes to the county level.
Consequently, this would enable the headquarters to broadly handle issues on formulation and direction of policy and regulating the operations of the frontline staff through advice and guidance.
The handbook explains: “Decentralisation is the process of transferring authority to perform specific aspects of teacher management functions from the headquarters to the counties.”
This is in pursuance of the provisions of Article 174 of the Constitution that requires the Commission like all other state organs to decentralise its functions and services from the headquarters.
This will also seek to strengthen the teacher management structures at the county, sub-county and institutional levels.
TSC County Directors facilitate the processing of teacher registration and enforcement of the requirements for teacher registration.
They also co-ordinate teacher recruitment at the county; maintain a data base of registered teachers including the unemployed teachers within the county;
Among others, the County Directors manage aspects of teacher management as per the existing policy and guidelines within the county. They are assisted by the Deputy director, quality assurance and Standards Officer, Human Resource Officer, Sub County Director and The Curriculum Support Officer.
Deploying the new officers comes barely a year after the Ministry of Education (MoE) introduced the positions of regional co-ordinators.
The Ministry of Education is a creation of an Act of Parliament while TSC is through the 2010 Constitution.
The two will, therefore, have different set of roles to play in regard to promoting learning and education in the country.
