The strategy is meant to reduce rising cases of indiscipline among tutors in public schools
By Roy Hezron
A total of 22, 239 teachers including those newly employed and heads of institutions will undergo Induction, Mentorship and Coaching (TIMEC) programme by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in its efforts to reduce indiscipline cases among teachers and improve on their classroom instructions, retention and learning outcome.
The teachers include 18, 585 newly employed secondary school teachers who have been employed by the Commission for the last three years from 2018 to 2021, and a total of 3, 654 newly appointed Head of Institutions for the last three years (from 2018-2021); who include 11 Principals in Teacher Training Colleges, 3,089 Head teachers in Primary Schools, and 554 Principals in Secondary Schools.
The programme which started with training of Field Officers who will play a key role in the implementation in January 26, 2022; is expected to be rolled out from March to June this year to the targeted group of teachers mentioned.
“Induction, Mentorship and coaching programme is expected to increase teacher effectiveness, job satisfaction, commitment, improved classroom instruction, teacher retention and improved learning outcomes,” said Mukui David, the Commission’s Field Services Directorate in a presentation on the programme’s implementation roll out.
The Commission has trained about 10 Regional Officers and a total of 295 Field Officers on the implementation of the programme.
According to the Commission, the programme looks at preventive and corrective approaches in the management of teacher professional conduct and performance.
The process of identification and selection of mentors, coaches and champions at the school level has already commenced, and the Commission in its Circular dated January 31, 2022 has directed all County and Sub-County Directors to submit the data to their respective reporting structures not later than February 28, 2022.
Basically, the programme is meant to target new teachers joining the teaching service notably new recruits and those in internship and those joining the administrative positions and those having challenges in performance.
According to the Commission’s plan, teachers will be trained in three financial years starting with 2021/22 financial years to 2023/24, having a target of 13,000 teachers in each financial year.
According to the commission Secretary Dr. Nancy Macharia, the many hours wasted inform of teacher-learner contact time results in poor learning outcomes and a drop in performance at all levels.
“To address this challenge, the Commission, in its Strategic Plan 2019 -2023, committed to implement mentorship and coaching as a preventive strategy that pre-empts indiscipline amongst teachers rather than corrective mechanisms in management of discipline,” states Dr. Macharia in the policy document.
The programme is also expected to target a total of 12,000 School administrators and Board of Management (BoMs) who will be trained on management of discipline cases, and this will capture a total of 4,000 teachers in each financial year till 2024 with 2021/22 being the baseline year.
Unlike before where the commission used a decentralized system whereby indiscipline cases were being heard at County and Regional offices which saw some cases taking long before being concluded, this time the commission has decided to mentor and couch teachers’ joining the services using their fellow teachers who have been in service for a while.
A lot of indiscipline cases among teachers results to canon knowledge, insubordination whereby teachers being reported for not taking duties, missing lessons, alcoholism and drug abuse, absenteeism among others.
