Teachers Service (TSC) has finally settled the debate on which teachers will attend to learners who will join junior secondary schools at Grade 7, 8 and 9
TSC had initially raised hope for thousands of primary school teachers with various higher academic qualifications but have failed to secure promotions after coming of the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG).
These are primary school teachers with the following qualifications;
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- Degree and Diploma in Special Needs Education
- Degree and in Early Childhood Development Education Diploma in Education (Primary option)
- Diploma in Education (Secondary option)
- Bachelors Degree in Education (Secondary option) but lacking C+ at KCSE or C+ in teaching subjects.
According to the report titled Status Report on Teacher Preparedness for Competence Based Curriculum Implementation which was presented before the Parliamentary Committee on Education, The commission had said that it will deploy P1 teachers who hold
- Diplomas.
- Higher Diplomas,
- under graduate Degrees,
- Post-graduate Diplomas,
- Masters and PHDs
to teach at junior secondary schools (JSS).
The Commision was also hard pressed to issue its report on status of preparedness ahead of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) transition classes and the looming double intake in 2023.
As at now, TSC only deploys primary school teachers with Bachelors in Education (Secondary option) to teach in secondary schools.
All the deployed teachers must also have at least C+ at KCSE and at least C+ in the teaching subjects.
The commission’ s deployment policy has led to an outcry after locking out thousands of primary school teachers who attended higher institutions of learning but their certificates rendered useless.
Best examples are teachers who joined universities with C (plain) mean grade at KCSE to study Bachelors in Education (Secondary option) but are now not eligible for deployment.
TSC Commission is beating an about turn and now galvanizing on high school teachers ahead of the roll out of the junior secondary classes.
The Commission is beating an about turn and now galvanizing on high school teachers ahead of the roll out of the junior secondary classes.
The Commission clarified that the training of primary school teachers who will handle Grade Six pupils was done in December 2021.
TSC also made the revelations at Hilton Hotel in Nairobi last year September 14 during Education ministry’s top officials’ meeting with the Kenya Editors, only high school teachers will be trained to handle Grade 7, 8 and 9 which are the junior secondary classes
The Commission also said at least 60,000 high school teachers trained in March and April this year in preparation for the rollout of junior secondary.The Ministry of Education is currently working to upgrade select primary schools to junior secondary schools.Primary schools with established infrastructure that can host a junior secondary school (JSS) wing will be upgraded.
Teachers that are under-enrolled and in close proximity will be merged and the infrastructure of one of them improved.
Most schools will have both primary and junior secondary hosted in the same compound.Junior secondary school will comprise of Grades 7, 8 and 9.
Come 2023, pioneer learners under the new 2-6-3-3-3 Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) system will transition to junior secondary school after sitting the Grade Six national examinations. The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) said syllabus designs from Grade One to Ten are ready.
Education ministry further said that the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will, from September 27 to October 1, roll out the pilot summative assessment for Grade Six pupils in select primary schools.
The ministry will enable the exams body to generate a sample paper for the final assessment.
The KNEC will use the current Grade 5 learners to pilot summative assessment for Grade Six.
Pilot test will also allow KNEC to establish suitability of the assessment tools, the exams’ difficulty levels, language appropriateness, adequacy of the duration of the exam and the reporting format for learners’ competencies.
This pilot test will be conducted in both public and private primary schools in the 47 counties.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Dr. Julius Jwan further reiterated the ministry’s commitment to the CBC.
“parents are only complaining about too much work given to the learners, but have no issue with the quality of learning offered,” said Juan.Parental engagement in their children’s learning is vital,” he said.
In 2023 when Grade 6 will move to Grade 7 (junor secondary) it is also the year Class Six learners under the 8-4-4 education system will join Form One after sitting the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Examinations (KCPE), thereby presenting a huge infrastructure and staffing challenge of hosting 2.6 million children.A report by CBC task force says the total number of Grade Six and Standard Eight learners expected to join secondary school in 2023 will be 2,571,044.
“Approximately 1,250,649 learners enrolled at Grade 4 in 2020 will transit to Junior secondary school (Grade 7) as the first cohort of the 2-6-3-3-3 while the 1,320,395 Standard Six cohort of 2020 will transition to Form One under 8-4-4 system in 2023,” reads the CBC task force report.
Those who will be deployed to handle learners in junior secondary schools will start at job grade C2 at a basic salary scale of sh 34,955 at a minimum and sh 43,694 at a maximum per month. They will automatically be moved to job grade C3 upon completion of three years as stipulated in CPG.
They will also enjoy:
- a commuter allowance of shs 5,000,
- a house allowance of shs 7,500 for those who are not in any municipality and
- an annual leave allowance of shs 6,000.
- Teachers in hardship areas will enjoy a hardship allowance of shs 10,900.
In job grade C3, they will earn a basic salary of sh 43,154 at a minimum and sh 53,943 at a maximum per month.
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