The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will deploy primary school teachers to teach in junior secondary schools despite changes in deployment policy.
The Commission will continue to promote P1 teachers with degree secondary option to teach in secondary schools.
TSC has however raised the bar for teachers who wish to be deployed to teach in secondary schools including junior secondary.
You Might Also Like
TSC says teachers who did not attain a mean grade C+ in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam will not teach in secondary schools even if they have degree secondary option.
There are a number of primary school teachers who joined universities to study degree secondary option and they graduated but they had C (plain) mean grade in KCSE.
Addressing teachers in Mombasa during head teachers Kepsha conference, TSC Deputy Director of Staffing Antonia Lentoijoni said although the qualification requirements were not popular with teachers, they would improve standards.
She said the bar was raised by the Commission to improve the quality of education, following new challenges emerging in society.
“The Teachers Service Commission has raised the entry point of teaching in the country to have the right kind of people to offer quality education to our children,” said Lentoijoni.
The decision now locks out teachers who scored C- or C and have degrees from going to teach in secondary school, despite a suggestion by Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Collins Oyuu that teachers in primary school be allowed to teach Grade 7 and 8 in junior secondary school because several of them have masters degrees.
But the TSC insisted any teacher who wants to teach in secondary school must now have C+ and above, leaving those who got their degrees using diploma certificates in a dilemma.
A total of 3,000 P1 graduate teachers were promoted to teach in secondary schools in the last three years.
TSC advertised 1,000 deployment posts in 2019 and another 1,000 in September 2020. The Commission advertised 1,000 more slots for deployment last year.
The Commission posted teachers with both Art and Science combinations to secondary schools.
Though some teachers complained on the Commission criteria on deploying teachers TSC said deployment will be done based on availability of teaching vacancy.
From July 2021 a deployed teacher in job group C2 takes home shs 34,955 at minimum in basic pay and shs 43,694 at maximum.
The teacher enjoys a commuter allowance of shs 5,000 a house allowance of shs 7,500 for those who are not in any municipality and a leave allowance of shs 6,000 paid once yearly. Those in hardship areas enjoy hardship allowance of shs 10,900.
TSC highlighted the following requirements for one to qualify for promotion and deployment to secondary school;
i) Be a Kenyan citizen;
ii) Be a holder of a P1 Certificate;
iii) Be a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with 2 teaching subjects;
iv) Must have attained at least c+ (Plus) mean grade at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent and C+ (Plus) or it’s equivalent in the two teaching subjects;
v) Must be serving under Teachers Service Commission.
TSC recently advertised employment 154 tutors for the diploma trainee teachers who joined college last year.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said following the introduction of the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) last year there has been staffing strain.
The first and second cohorts of trainees were admitted in May and October last year, respectively.
The crisis, Ms Macharia said, was also brought about by readmission of unemployed P1 teachers and nursery school teachers to upgrade their certificates.
The two groups are undertaking Diploma in Primary Teacher Education and Diploma Early Childhood Teacher Education (DECTE) respectively.
“The net effect is on teacher requirements to meet the demands of the Competency-Based Teacher Education (CBTE) and the expanded learning areas. This demand is further aggravated by annual retirement of lecturers and the recent promotion of lecturers to take up positions in secondary schools,” said Dr Macharia.
Consequently, TSC is hiring 130 trainers who will be posted to the 35 Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs).
Another 24 will be hired to boost teaching staff at Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (CEMASTEA).
This brings to 154, the total number of required staff.
“To mitigate this demand, the vacancies will be filled competitively by interested qualified teachers from secondary schools. Vacancies in secondary schools will be filled by teacher exits for the period June 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021,” said Macharia.
According to TSC, the said vacancies will be filled purely for deployment and not for promotion, and will involve validation of documents.
“Interested candidates, who meet the requirements, should submit their applications online not later than January 25,” reads the communication.
Those who will be deployed to CEMASTEA, will be required to have a minimum grade of C4, T-Scale 9, Senior Master IV.
They must also have a Bachelor’s Degree in Education (Science) or its equivalent and should have been a County Trainer-CEMASTEA for at least three years.
Successful candidates must also have demonstrated professionalism and good performance, have demonstrated proficiency in computer literacy and ICT integration in teaching and also participated in the performance appraisal process.
And for those who will be deployed to TTCs, they will be required to have a minimum grade of C4, T-Scale 9, Senior Master IV.?
They should also be holders of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education or its equivalent and have participated in the performance appraisal process.??
For those who will be deployed to TTCs, 13 will teach mathematics, and a similar number will also teach Agriculture.
Some 18 teachers will teach Music and 17 deployed to teach Home Science.
Other areas that have staffing deficits are Physics/Chemistry (Science And Technology), Biology/Chemistry (Science And Technology ), Computer Studies/(ICT integration), Physical Education, English/Lit and Kiswahili/CRE.
Below is the advert by the Teachers Service Commission.
Loading...
Reload document
Open in new tab 
