The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been asked to extend the application deadline for the promotion of 36,275 teachers for at least two more weeks since the website portal where teachers are supposed to submit their applications is slow.
Speaking to Education News recently, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Narok branch Executive Secretary Charles Ng’eno stated that the TSC portal is hardly working and the deadline is drawing closer and if the Commission will not extend the deadline, then many potential teachers will be locked out.
“TSC has advertised for promotional positions but the portal is not working. Teachers cannot submit their applications. We want TSC to extend the deadline for at least a week or two,” he said.
The Commission is targeting to promote a total of 36,275 as per the Commission’s Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) for Teachers, where interested candidates had until September 8, 2023 to submit their applications.
However, it has not been easy for teachers to submit their applications as they have been encountering a number of challenges with a number of them, who were recently transferred, fearing that they might miss out on the promotions.
They had earlier complained that it was taking long to change their station codes from the Teacher Management Information System (TMIS), an online platform meant for teachers to update their data.
Ng’eno further asked TSC to be fair in the promotion of teachers adding that the Commission should clarify on the criteria it will use to promote the teachers.
“We want to ask TSC to be fair. You know promotions in TSC have always been shrouded in misery. We don’t know what criteria they are using. It should be clear how many slots go to which county,” he demanded.
“When you just tell teachers to apply, you don’t know how many slots have come to Narok, you don’t know how many slots have gone to Mombasa, you know that is a window of corruption; which can be misused by some individuals at the TSC,” he added.
The KUPPET Narok boss suggested that the Commission allocates each county a number of promotion slots to be sub-divided into sub-counties to ensure equality and fairness.
A huge chunk of the promotion slots will range from Grade C3 to C4 Senior Master IV, where the Commission is targeting to promote a total of 12,716 teachers to that position.
For one to be appointed to the position, a teacher must have served as a Secondary Teacher I, T-Scale 8 for a minimum period of two (2) years and obtained a satisfactory rating in the performance appraisal process.
It also targets to promote 1,142 teachers from Grade C4 to C5 Senior Master III status, where to be appointed, a teacher must have served as Senior Master IV T-Scale 9 for a minimum period of two (2) years and also obtained a satisfactory rating in the performance appraisal process.
Other positions include Chief Principal 34 posts, Senior Principal 108 posts, Principal 541 posts, Deputy Principal II 547 posts, Senior Lecturer I a total of 72 posts, Deputy Principal III with 1,057 posts, Senior Lecturer IV in Teacher Training Colleges with 216 posts and Secondary Teacher I with 1,928 posts.
Headteacher with 1,049 posts and 30 posts for Special Needs Education (SNE), Deputy Headteacher II with 1,930 posts, Senior Teacher I in primary schools with 3,040 positions; while for SNE, with an allocation of 346 positions, Senior Teacher II in primary schools with majority of 10,819 positions and Senior Teacher II in SNE institutions with 700 positions.
By Roy Hezron
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