By Roy Hezron
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has deployed 47 Principal Teacher Management Officers (TMOs) to various parts of the country.
They will perform teacher management functions at sub-county level, a task that was previously handled by Sub County Directors (SCDs).
The Commission advertised the 47 positions between January and February this year and reportedly conducted the interviews of the shortlisted candidates when schools proceeded for half-term on June 3, 2021 to June 7, 2021.
The officers have been deployed to various sub-counties that did not have TSC Sub-County Directors to facilitate the processing of teacher registration.
The move has created fear among SCDs who say TSC is creating a parallel teacher management layer equivalent to positions they hold.
Other roles reserved for them include, implementing policies and guidelines related to teacher management functions, identifying vacant posts as per the establishment in all public learning institutions and prepare advertisements for the posts.
Additionally, they will analyze data on teachers relating to the teacher management and identify gaps in the teacher establishment for decision making.
They are to identify and establish skills inventory for teachers in public learning institutions and advise the management on issues pertaining to special needs education.
Further, the officers will be responding to queries on special needs education, sensitize all teachers on gender and disability mainstreaming in all public learning institution.
They will also compile sub-county public complaints report on matters affecting teachers and coordinate professional teacher development programmes to ensure continuous improvement of teachers’ skills.
Other duties that the officers will perform include investigating allegations of professional misconduct within the sub-county and receive applications for transfer of service of teachers to public institutions for submission to the county office.
They will receive applications for release of teachers to other institutions for submission to the county office, receive retirement documents and submit to the county office, supervise staff within the sub county office and any other duty as may be assigned by the County Director.
Despite the fact that they have been moved to various sub-counties that don’t have the Sub-county Directors, their duties and responsibilities are similar to the one the Sub-county Directors are performing.
In addition, the two they have been placed in an almost an equivalent Job Group, with Sub-County Directors being placed at T-Scale 6 while the TMO’s at T-Scale 7.
“They are performing duties of Sub-County Director and they are in the same Job Group with some of the Sub-County Directors. So what we do not know is the difference between a TMO and a Sub-County Director. What distinguishes a TMO and a SCD?” asked one TSC field officer on condition of anonymity.
Initially, the officers were placed to operate at various TSC County offices but because of shortages of Sub-County Directors they have deployed them (TMO’s) to avoid overworking the SDC’s.
Some SCD were managing more than one sub-county and the deployment is expected to cushion them though the biggest question is what distinguishes a TMO from a SCD.
In 2019, the Commission revised the grading structure for its secretariat staff which saw the merging of Senior Deputy Director, County Director and Deputy Director into one post as Deputy Director or County Director; and placed them at TSC Scale 5.
Their equivalent Job Group was R which also included Regional Directors.
The positions of Chief Officers and Principal Officers were also merged and renamed Principal Officer and placed at TSC Scale 7.
Sub-County Directors were renamed as Assistant Directors from Assistant Deputy Director.
The Assistant Directors at the Sub-County where the county offices were domiciled had their jobs enriched by having them assigned the additional responsibility of Deputy County Director.
The other positions which were also merged were that of Principal Officers and Chief Officers who initially were in Job Group N and M being merged to new designation of Principal Officers at TSC Scale 7 with equivalent Job Group being N.
Senior Deputy Director (TSC Scale 13), Deputy Director (TSC Scale 12), Assistant Deputy Director (TSC Scale 11) are being placed on a five year renewable contract.
The constitution under Article 252(1) empowers each independent Commission like TSC to recruit its own staff.
