The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been promoting and deploying Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers to different schools with vacancies.
Teachers in JSS have been offered employment under three different terms: first as interns, permanent and pensionable, and promotion on a deployment basis from primary to JSS.
This aligns with Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) so that adequate expertise and staffing can be realised.
It’s also done through adverts, which is a wider strategy to address the ever-changing needs and demands of the JSS and the wider education system.
To address shortages, especially in Competency-Based Education (CBE), highly qualified and seasoned teachers are needed, not just grades B5 to C3 alone, as has been the case.
These teachers are primarily expected to advance, potentially reaching Job group D5, similar to high school principals.
Consideration during deployment is basically pegged on subject combinations, gender and special needs education.
JSS teachers are supposed to be employed as interns first and then, after meeting the set criteria, converted to Permanent and Pensionable terms.
Unions have been continuously advocating for direct Permanent and Pensionable terms.
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According to the teachers who were employed in 2022 and 2023, totalling 8378, and even those who later joined them, most of their expectations were not met as promised earlier.
Most highly qualified P1S deployed to JSS are disgruntled because, according to the circular, those in B5 were promoted to C1, C2 to C3, and C3 to C4.
Those in C4 and above were never promoted after deployment, and TSC has remained dumb and silent.
This means that even after being deployed, their status remains the same despite being at par with those behind them.
Most highly qualified teachers have refused to apply for deployment because they do not see the need for additional responsibilities for the same pay.
This is a summative reason why it would take a little too long for the CBE experts to accept the terms set by the teachers’ employer.
The TSC must devise a formula for attracting administrators at the primary school level to be deployed in JSS by improving the terms and conditions of service for these teachers.
There should be clear terms and conditions of service because if they’re not put in place right now, trouble in the near future is crystal clear.
By our reporter
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