The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has given teachers one week to finalize their termly appraisals.
This means that teachers must work and complete their Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) by end of this week when schools will be closing for second term.
According to Ministry of Education (MOE) calendar all schools must close by 16th September 2022.
According to the Commission, TPAD which is an open appraisal system will allow teachers in primary and secondary schools to participate in evaluating their own performance and initiate their professional development.
Through the appraisal and development system, it is envisaged that teachers will become more empowered to regain the lost glory of the teaching profession and public confidence and support.
TSC uses TPAD to promote its teachers. During promotion interviews teachers must download and produce evidence of TPAD compliance for them to be considered.
TSC has incorporated the infamous Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training programme into its TPAD portal.
The first TPD cohorts will complete their introductory module in December this year and will be issued with a certificate.
The Commission punishes teachers who fail to take part in its termly TPAD exercise. Show cause letters are often issued to teachers who do not complete their termly appraisal by the end of the set deadline.
In July TSC released data which showed that most teachers are conversant with the appraisal system which was introduced five years ago.
The data showed that more than 93% of TSC teachers completed the online appraisal forms by the end of Term 3 in April, compared to 87% by the end of Term 2 and 86% by the end of the first term.
By the end of the third term, 341,760 teachers completed the online forms, an increase of 4,917 of the teachers who carried out the task in the previous term, the status report by TSC Director of Quality and Standards Dr Mugwuku Nthamburi.
The Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development tool was introduced in 2016. Later in 2019 it was renamed as TPAD2 after several changes were made.
However the appraisal system met some resistance from Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) which was then led by Wilson Sossion as secretary general.
Also the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) rejected the policy change, saying they were not consulted and that the appraisal process was labourious and a waste of time.
They accused TSC of disrupting learning and teaching by forcing teachers to spend many hours in cyber cafes downloading and filling the appraisal forms.
Teachers complained that the paper work involved was time-consuming and required reliable Internet, which they said was unavailable in some places.
But TSC explained that the system was a tool to help it get real-time feedback about the activities going on in schools, teachers’ competencies, gaps in training and the standards of teaching and learning in individual schools.
Currently there are claims that the submitted appraisals do not reflect how things actually are on the ground.
Infact some teachers are said to be filling and submitting the appraisal scores just for the sake of their job with many sources saying the submitted scores are just but cooked figures.
Sources say some schools do not even conduct lesson observation while some teachers will just call the cyber attendants to fill anything and submit during the eleventh hour.
According to Dr Nthamburi’s report to TSC regional directors, 22,607 teachers representing 6.61% did not complete the process for term three and their appraisals were pending at various stages.
Out of these, 4,703 teachers did not complete appraising themselves, 5,829 submitted their forms but were not appraised by their supervisors while 6,059 forms had missing signatures.
He asked the directors to send a report showing reasons for non-compliance in their counties, list of teachers who have not been captured in the system and the reason why, table of missing schools and an explanation as to why some forms had missing signatures.
He also asked the directors to demonstrate how they would ensure 100 per cent compliance in their areas besides giving suggestions on how the online system can be improved.
*TPAD CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES AT THE INSTITUTION LEVEL*
*TPAD Activity Action By Time Frame*
1. Planning meetings before school opening involving all staff to set school TPAD Activity calendar Heads of Institutions , Senior
Management Team, Teachers, By the last week of the school holiday.
2. Submission of professional documents Heads of institution
All Teachers By the end of the first week of the term
3. Undertaking lesson observations and identifying and documenting teacher’s professional gaps Appraisees and appraisers. Between 2nd week and 10th week of the term
4. Undertaking teacher professional development to address professional gaps. Appraisees, appraisers, institutional administrators. Throughout the term; from 1st week to the last week of the term
5. Internal Monitoring & Evaluation of the implementation of TPAD process. Heads of institution, Deputy Head of Institution, Heads of Department Continuous throughout the term
6. Monitoring the implementation of TPAD process at county level; zonal, sub county & county Curriculum Support Officers, Sub County Directors and County Directors Throughout the term; from 1st week to the last week of the term
7. TPAD rating meetings Appraisee (teachers) and appraiser (HODs, deputy heads, Heads of Institution, CSOs, SCD) By the closing date of the term
8. Uploading of TPAD data and evidence. Appraisee (teachers) and appraiser (HODs, deputy heads, Heads of Institution, CSOs, SCD) Throughout the term.
*The Commission clarifications on TPAD:*
I. Performance Contract (PC): Performance Contract for heads of primary and secondary institutions is available on the TSC website.
The heads of institution are required to follow the PC calendar of activities which also provides that the PC should be downloaded and signed as required.
Once this has been done, the heads of institution are required to develop the Operational workplan which can be done on the TPAD online system.
2. Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD): Due to the complexities caused by the design of the TPAD online system, it has been decided that all data, for both term 2 and term 3 be done on Term 2 2021.
This means that teachers teaching grade 4, class 8 and form 4 can input the data on learners’ progress on the term 2 2021 portal and not on term 3 2021 as had earlier been communicated in the memo.
The Heads of institution are required to customize the TPAD calendar provided in the TPAD on line system and share these requirements with the teachers when the schools were opened.
4. Lesson Observation: The TPAD online system provides for lesson observation which should be done at least once a term.
5. Missing schools: A list of schools missing from the TPAD system in respective Counties should be submitted to the Commission.
6. Mapping of schools: All teachers should be mapped in their respective schools, zones, sub counties and counties respectively.
These rights have been assigned to the County Director and the County ICT officers.
7. A list of teachers yet to appear on TPAD online system should be submitted to the Commission with their TSC numbers and work stations.
Teachers should also create their TPAD accounts and this will remedy this situation.
8. Schools with no administrators: The County Director should assign rights to teachers to act as deputies and heads of institution so as to ensure that the appraisal process is completed at the school level.
