By Norah Musega
Suna West Member of Parliament Hon. Peter Masara is seeking answers from teachers’ employer on its plans to enhance career progression of P1 teachers.
In a move aimed at enhancing teachers’ career progression by the employer, Masara posed a series of questions to the TSC during a parliamentary seating of the Departmental Committee on Education recently.
The legislator is seeking to find out what measures the Commission has taken to enable the career progression of P1 teachers especially those who have attained Bachelor’s Degrees in Education but are still teaching in primary schools.
In the order papers also seen by Education News, Masara also asked the Commission to consider posting P1 teachers with Bachelor’s Degrees in Education to teach in Junior Secondary Schools.
This move, he argued, would enhance their remuneration and benefits to be commensurate with their academic qualifications.
In addition to these queries, the MP is seeking information on the compensation of Graduate Teachers serving under P1 grade for the years they have worked as Graduate teachers.
He also wants to know if the Commission has put in place any measures to compensate these teachers and, if not, whether there are plans to compensate them and how long it would take for the teachers to be compensated.
His concerns come amid confusion in the implementation of Competency Based Curriculum in junior secondary schools with teachers unions both accusing the government for lack of preparedness following scarcity of teachers deployed to teach in JSS.
Both KNUT and KUPPET through their officials have in the recent past scrambled for opportunities to manage teaching in the JSS.
KUPPET officials have called on the TSC to allow JSS proceed in secondary schools, saying their members are more qualified and well trained to handle Science Practicals and that secondary schools have well equipped laboratories.
On the other hand, KNUT has equally stood on grounds that their members are able to handle the JSS syllabus saying they have qualified teachers who have advanced their level of education enabling then to understand the new system of education.
However, both unions have called on the government to enhance proper commencement of learning in JSS centers through deployment of teachers to handle the learners in grade seven.
