By Our Reporter
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started the process of transferring data of tutors in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions to the Public Service Commission (PSC)
This is in preparation for PSC to handle the schemes of service of the more than 4,000 tutors and lecturers in these institutions. Commission Deputy CEO Simon Kavisi said that they have held discussion with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TIVETA) over the process. Speaking on the sidelines of the 43rd Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association Annual Conference at the Wild waters, Mombasa, Kavisi said there is a plan in place to ensure the exercise succeeds.
“We have provided the authority with the records of the tutors to ensure there is a smooth transition,” he said.
However, he offered that any previous plan to revise the schemes of service for the tutors will not be under the ambit of the commission.
The scheme of service establishes the structures that indicate the roles and responsibilities, remuneration, promotion systems, grading of teachers among other issues that touch on their welfare.
Consequently, the more than 4,000 tutors and lecturers are expected to be handled by the Public Service Commission from 1st July, 2018.
Before the transition, TSC was planning to review the schemes of service for the tutors but Kavisi said that it is no longer within their mandate.
The decision to move the tutors to a different employer follows their dissatisfaction with TSC on the manner their schemes of service have been handled.
With the increasing need to make technical training play a more central role in transforming the country into a middle level income, there was need to have a different employer.
This is also largely informed by the unique demand of the sector where they would need tutors with practical knowledge of the field, an area some key players felt TSC was not up to the task.
Principal Secretary, State Department for Vocational and Technical Training Dr. Kevit Desai noted in the past that the move will liberate the trainers to be more effective in their work and mainstream competency based education and training into the new system.
This is a paradigm shift that will require them to play a more distinctive role to promote hands on training as they require closer understanding of the productive sector hence the need to hire individuals from the private sector.
Besides, it seeks to create an ecosystem where there is close coordination between training and the industry players.
Once it is complete, it will also give teachers unions another task as those representing their affairs, notably the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet).
The current Kuppet constitution allows that only those employed by TSC are recruited. Subsequently, it would be forced to amend the constitution to create room to recruit those employed by the PSC.
Alternatively, it creates another opportunity for the tutors to form their own union to champion their work related affairs.
