By Roy Hezron
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has now challenged the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to look at the current qualifications a teacher has obtained instead of the grades they scored in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations while deploying primary school teachers to teach in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS).
Speaking to Education News the union Secretary General Collins Oyuu stated that they are not going to rest until they have graduate primary teachers deployed to teach JSS, revealing that those with Diploma qualifications are being blocked out of the deployment process because they scored grade C (plain) in KCSE.
Oyuu stated that some teachers scored that grade when they sat their KCSE examinations 20 years ago and they qualified for teaching course based on the grade they scored at that time.
“We are fighting to have the grade C (plain), those who have qualified for Diploma and degrees be considered based on the final grade because C (plain) was the basic entry grade for college entry. So we cannot condemn you based on what you had 20 years ago,” said Oyuu.
He added: “The bottom line is you qualify to be a teacher. The basic qualifications to be in college being a C (plain) qualify you to be a teacher. If you had the teaching subjects with C+(plus) went on and attained your diploma, degree then you are 100 per cent a teacher; get deployed.”
According to Oyuu, there are about 30,000 teachers who are qualified with degrees but were not promoted by February 2014, though quite a number have actually been deployed in the annual 1,000 deployments to secondary schools by TSC.
Though the number might have escalated considering the period starting 2014 to date and also those who might have exited the service through retirement or natural attrition.
In 2017, the TSC made a policy decision to annually deploy 1,000 primary school teachers who have acquired higher qualifications and also meet the required standards to secondary schools, which is done competitively to ensure that the principle of fair competition is achieved.
However, Oyuu welcomed the TSC move to deploy primary school teachers to teach the JSS adding that they are putting pressure on TSC to deploy the remaining number of teachers who were set to be deployed to secondary schools so that it can pave room for more employment.
Public primary school teachers who are currently serving under permanent and pensionable terms in various schools in the country and who meet requisite qualifications were given up to February 6, 2023 to apply for deployment to teach in JSS.
This is after the TSC officially opened the deployment portal on January 28, 2023 and advertised the same via its official social media accounts.
According to the advert, for a teacher to be deployed to teach JSS, they must have at least attained a Mean Grade of C+ (plus) in their KCSE examination.
Further, the teacher should at least have grade C+ (plus) in two teaching subjects at KCSE or its equivalent, and at least 8 units in each of the two teaching subjects.
There were concerns that the over 30,000 teachers who were recently recruited to JSS which was equated to one teacher per school, may be insufficient, given that some schools have more than two streams.
In February 2022 TSC Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Nancy Macharia admitted that increasing number of teachers attaining higher qualifications in form of Diplomas and Degrees was the major reason that made the Commission to stop automatic promotion of teachers in January 9, 2014 upon attaining higher qualifications.
Historically primary school teachers who acquired higher qualifications in form of either Diploma in Education or Bachelors’ Degree from a recognized institution were automatically promoted to Job Group J and K respectively.
According to TSC data, there were about 218,077 teachers in public primary schools as at 2020 whereby 21,632 teachers (who include 9,821 male and 11,811 female) had Diploma qualifications, while 17,930 teachers (who include 8,627 male and 9,303 female) had Bachelor Degrees. About 491 teachers had Masters and Doctoral degrees (197 male and 294 female).
TSC Chairman Dr. Jamleck Muturi while appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee in December 2022 told the legislators that the Commission will retool primary school teachers to handle JSS in a move to ensure all schools have sufficient number of teachers.
Grade 7 teachers will teach Mathematics, Languages, Pure Sciences (integrated science biology, chemistry, physics, and health education), Applied sciences (agriculture, home science, and computer studies), Humanities (social studies, religious studies, and life skills), Technical subjects and Creative arts, Pre-vocational and Pre-career Business studies, Music, Sports, Physical education and Home science.
Accordingly there shall be nine (9) lessons per day for five days totaling to 45 lessans per week, with time allocation for each lesson being 40 minutes; with English being the medium of instruction for all learning areas except Kiswahili, Kenya Sign Language (KSL), Foreign and Indigenous languages.
