By Education News Reporter
The recent pronouncement by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that none of its secretariat staff is going on leave in order to oversee the recruitment of the 30,550 teachers by January 2023 has sparked debate with many of its field officers rejecting the Commission’s stand.
Speaking during the 24th Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) on December 10, 2022 in Murang’a County, TSC Director of Legal, Labour and Industrial Relations Cavin Anyuor stated that the commission is working round the clock to ensure that they have the teachers by January 2023, and that there is nobody who is going on leave.
“There is nobody in the TSC who is going on leave and who is sleeping because we have a presidential directive that we must have the 30,000 teachers for Junior Secondary on January 1, 2023. So we have a timeline of about 15 days to execute that presidential directive,” said Anyuor.
Anyuor noted that unlike before where teachers were given 14 days to make their application, this time round they will be given only 7 days to make the application due to the tight timelines they have.
However, this pronouncement seem not to have gone down well with a number of Field Officers who claim that they will be over-worked since they have been involved the supervision and administration of the national examinations since late November 2022.
According KNEC timetable, Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) started November 28 to 30, 2022; while Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) kicked off November 21, 2022 to December 23, 2022.
The officers decry that most if not all officers were asked not to go on leave from November 11, 2022 so that they can supervise the National exams and they have been waking up by 4.00 am in the morning to find their way to exam containers.
“We are dying down here…The exams aren’t over and the recruitment exercise is to begin in earnest. Surely, are we dogs or donkeys? Don’t we have a right to family? Must we be the ones to feel the heat?” lamented one of the TSC Sub-County Directors.
The officers are now calling upon the Education cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu to intervene and lessen the suffering they are going through under TSC.
“I thought instead of suffering from within, I make this appeal for your intervention because I trust you. Please Sir, rescue TSC officers,” added another Sub-County Director.
According to the TSC roadmap for the recruitment of teachers and interns, immediately after the closure of the online application on Sunday December 18, 2022; the Sub-County Directors will have 5 days to generate applicants’ lists and carry out shortlisting through the Sub-County Selection Panel and thereafter invitation for interviews from December 19, 2022 running till December 23, 2022.
Thereafter submission of lists of shortlisted candidates to the TSC headquarters by the TSC Regional Director on December 27, 2022 for publishing of the shortlisted candidates on December 30, 2022 ahead of the 8-day county recruitment process; which will start January 3, 2023 until January 12, 2023.
After completion of the county recruitment process, these will follow; vetting at County Level, handling of complaints, signing of internship agreements, offer of internship letters and signing of offer of employment letters will follow, a process that will take 6 days from January 13, 2023 until January 20, 2023
The recruited teachers will be expected to report to their respective schools on January 23, 2023; with TSC directing that the officers will have 4 days to submit the recruitment documents to the headquarters effective from January 31, 2023 to February 3, 2023.
However, TSC County Directors are further required to submit reporting status of the newly employed teachers by February 28, 2023.
This is not the first time the TSC Sub-county Directors are complaining. During the Commission’s countrywide fact-finding mission tour led by Dr. Jamleck Muturi early this year ahead of the World Teachers Day celebrations, a number of challenges the officers face in their day to day discharge of their duties were raised.
It emerged that although they carry out their duties with courage and discipline, many go through challenges and are further given a deaf ear.
Of concern was the paradox where the officers at the sub-county level have to supervise teachers who are higher on the salary scale, raising concerns of inequitable promotions in the service that has kept them in one Job Group (JG) for decades.
The Commission has a total of 348 SCDs; 332 deployed to head sub-county offices tasked with the crucial role of teacher management, and the remaining being stationed at the Commission headquarters in Nairobi.
