Education stakeholders have differed on the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms’ (PWPER) recommendations to; reduce powers of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and making school heads agents of the Ministry of Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) at school level.
This follows key proposals by the taskforce that there should be a separate body created and bestowed with the functions of regulation of the teaching profession; unlike now where the Commission is both an employer and a regulator.
The proposal is implemented, TSC will only perform human resource functions of registering, employing registering, promoting and deploying teachers in the same way the Public Service Commission (PSC) operates.
Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (KETHAWA) rejected the proposal to transfer TSC powers with its National Secretary Wangonya Wangenye saying that teachers’ issues should solely be handled by Commission.
He added that for amendments to be done on any of TSC’s mandates, they should be done according to the Constitution since TSC is an independent commission.
“As Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association we vehemently and unequivocally oppose any move on proposals by Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms to recommend stripping of powers of the Teachers Service Commission,” said Wangenye.
However, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Busia Executive Secretary Okisai Moffats said that the establishment of a regulatory agency in the education sector was long overdue, since TSC is currently serving both as an employer and a regulator.
According to Okisai, the Commission awarded itself the functions of training and capacity building teachers through unending Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules; and further undertaking quality assurance and standard roles in the education sector.
“These tasks can comfortably be handled by a regulatory body to avoid conflict of interest. The professional body can be dubbed Institute of Certified Education in Kenya (ICEK),” stated Okisai.
Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET) Secretary General James Torome argued that TSC cannot be an employer and the regulator at the same, hence the need to have a body to carry out the regulatory functions.
“The employer cannot be the same time a regulator, so we recommend that the TSC Act be amended to have an independent body to regulate teachers,” said Torome.
Regarding who should take direct charge of school heads, Torome opposed the move to have them answerable to the CS adding that the Ministry should maintain its role of curriculum implementation in schools.
“That one we oppose because the TSC cannot be the employer then the same headteachers be answerable to the Ministry of Education. It is going to breed conflict between the employer and the Ministry,” he said.
Kenya Primary School Headteachers Association (KEPSHA) National Chairman Johnson Nzioka declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Education News stating that he could not to do so since the matter had not been made public.
In the proposals, PWPER is also recommending that the Quality Assurance and Standard (QAS) functions be harmonized and centralized, and further domiciled at the Ministry of Education to avoid duplication of roles; where if adopted in the final report, TSC will also lose the function.
Although the Ministry is mandated under the National Education Quality Assurance and Standards Framework for Basic Education Institutions (NEQASF) to supervise management and quality assurance in schools, the role has been taken over by TSC leading to friction between the two.
In 2020 the then Education CS the late Prof. George Magoha, while appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee, told MPs to re-look into the present law that does not empower his office to be in charge of teachers.
If the proposal to have the MoE regain full control over school heads is adopted, the move will make it easy for the Ministry to deal with those who mismanage capitation funds sent to schools.
By Roy Hezro
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