TSC should promote TTC tutors as per CBA
TSC must act on the grievances of Teachers Training College (TTC) tutors who are turning to be a forgotten lot. Majority of these tutors have stagnated in one job group for a long period of time. The 2012-2017 CBA had made a proposal for this group of tutors that the employer has disregarded despite many attempts to make the commission honor the proposal.
The CBA proposed that all the TTC tutors service as Lecturer 1, that is Job Group C3 should be should be promoted automatically to Senior Lecturer 4 which is Job Group C4. Efforts by the tutors and KUPPET have not yielded any fruits. This thus means the commission did not fully implement CBA.
In the recently advertised positions for promotion across the 35 TTCs, there were no slots for tutors. TSC only placed seven positions for chief principals who are in administrative positions.
When the 2017 CBA came into effect those tutors who had previously served as administrators in secondary schools but deployed to TTCs suffered a great deal. Those who were in the then Job Group M were taken to Job Group C4 while their contemporaries who were serving as administrators in secondary schools were moved to Job Group D3. In essence, it will take these tutors over 15 years to reach the scale where their secondary school peers were taken.
In the Teachers Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) rolled out by TSC, the highest grade a lecturer can go is D2. Surprisingly no tutor is serving in D1 or D2 in the country’s TTCs.
Those who were deployed to these colleges from primary and secondary schools have made several requests to be taken back but the commission is unwilling to take them back.
These tutors were recently in charge of retooling of all primary school head teachers and Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers. Surprisingly, the head teachers of primary schools who are a product of these tutors are earning higher than them.
TSC set to roll out refresher course for DPTE
As from August, all primary school head teachers, their deputies, senior teachers and classroom teachers will be undertaking an upgrade programme called Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) which the same demoralized teachers will be in charge.
There are proposals that have been put forth by the tutors for consideration by the employer which to them will improve their welfare and raise their morale.
A scheme of service for tutors should be put in place by the commission. The position of the Chief Principal should be renamed as director and be promoted to the grade of Ministry of Education Director.
After the director, there should be a deputy director who should serve in D5 while a registrar who is usually in charge of students, curriculum, and quality assurance should serve in D4. The deans who are in charge of the several learning areas and are departmental heads should be promoted to D3.
All the lecturers should be promoted to D2.
The TSC should begin engaging this group that has been forgotten because they are instrumental in the success of the CBC.
By Ngeno Charles
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