Last Tuesday, the Parliamentary Education Committee, led by Tindiret Member of Parliament Julius Melly, overwhelmingly rejected the list of recently promoted teachers from the Teachers Service Commission.
The Melly-led committee cited favouritism, discrimination, and a lack of regional balance, among other issues, as the basis for their rejection after long hours of engagement with the TSC CEO, Dr Nancy Macharia, at the parliament buildings.
The committee’s action has elicited praise and equal condemnation from the teaching fraternity and the general public. Over 178,000 teachers who had stagnated in one job group saw this as the right decision, as they could not figure out how they were left out, especially when their newly employed colleagues entered the promotion list.
The MPS, led by Lugari legislator Nabii Nabwera, castigated TSC for what he termed the application of a flawed formula that distributed promotion slots equally without considering areas with dense teacher populations. Other stakeholders felt that some regions within the country were favoured, thus applauding the rejection by the parliamentarians.
The MPS’s action suggests that the Commission return to factory settings, overturn the process, and embark on a new one.
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Melly indicated during the appearance that he had the lists of the past two promotions conducted by the Commission, which bolstered their decision to reject the process.
Last month, the media captured members of the same Parliament distributing employment forms to teachers in their constituencies.
It beats logic to see and hear that the same MPs busy doing illegal things by taking over the Commission mandate are now faulting a process that consumed time and resources to actualise.
Some affected teachers ask themselves whether the Commission rejected the MPS’ sacred cows, thus the impasse.
Others who spoke to Education News on condition of anonymity quickly pointed out that the MPs have always been involved in teacher recruitment and are now coming over to promote their clients.
From the ongoing, the MPS should have rejected the employment forms believed to have emanated from the Commission. Their total rejection of the promotion list suggests that they wanted to be involved in the promotion, which would have seen their cronies enter the list.
To ensure a seamless process, the committee should have had a session with the Commission before the start of the process to audit the promotion modalities.
By Naboth Murunga.
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