Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Nancy Macharia has asked the National Assembly to reject some recommendations by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) saying that they will put them at odds with the Ministry of Education (MoE).
While addressing the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education during public hearings in Kilifi County on September 22, she argued that these proposals would infringe upon its constitutional responsibilities.
She highlighted that the education reforms task force did not consider their input and excluded them from site visits and memo submissions.
Dr. Macharia said that implementing these recommendations would disrupt their mandate in tender recruitment, promotions and guidelines for schools and trainee teacher internships.
She particularly opposed the idea of the MoE developing guidelines for retraining teachers who graduated before 2023 without consulting them.
The CEO further argued against proposals that would give MoE more control over learning institutions and require TSC to decentralize its functions.
She said that this would impact TSC’s core roles such as tender registration, maintenance of the teacher register and teacher performance assessment.
Dr. Macharia emphasized that the Constitution and the TSC Act grant them exclusive authority over teacher management.
She said that any deviation from this would undermine their operational independence.
Furthermore, she opposed the introduction of the Educational Appeals Tribunal saying that it would compromise their decision-making independence.
The CEO also objected to the idea of TSC reviewing policies and guidelines beyond the Constitutional mandate and transferring control of entry grades for teaching programmes to MoE.
Dr. Macharia further expressed concern over the proposal to establish a comprehensive school system managed by MoE stating that it would expand their responsibilities beyond their constitutionally defined roles.
By Viola Chepkemoi
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