The Teacher Service Commission (TSC) will deploy at least 1,000 practicing P1 teachers in secondary schools in September this year.
Secondary school principals have already announced and submitted combinations of various subjects required in their schools.
Despite Parliament’s support for the TSC to deploy teachers with average grade C (plain) and degree in the secondary option, the Commission has remained adamant.
Members of Parliament asked the TSC to allow the promotion and deployment of teachers who have obtained a score of KCSE i.e. C (plain) grade or below and have obtained diploma, post graduate diploma and degree from various recognized educational institutions.
In its new scheme to promote teachers after July, the commission has indicated that only PTE teachers who get C + (plus) in KCSE will be considered.
Although the TSC stopped automatically promoting teachers after receiving higher academic credentials, the commission deploys 1,000 practicing P1 teachers each year.
TSC CEO Dr. Speaking in Parliament, Nancy Macharia said that they had stopped the automatic promotion of teachers in 2014 because it was not appropriate.
Macharia said that due to the increase in the number of highly qualified teachers, the policy of promotion of teachers had automatically become unsustainable and therefore the commission had automatically stopped the promotion on January 9, 2014.
“The high number of teachers attaining higher qualifications made the policy fiscally unsustainable,” said Dr. Macharia.
Data from the Commission revealed that there were about 218,077 teachers in public primary schools as at 2020.
21,632 teachers (9,821 male and 11,811 female) had Diploma qualifications, while 17,930 teachers (8,627 male and 9,303 female) had Bachelor Degrees.
About 491 teachers had Masters and Doctoral degrees (197 male and 294 female) while the rest had certificate qualifications.
In Post Primary institutions, there were about 113,155 teachers as at 2020. 1, 725 teachers (909 male teachers and 816 female teachers) had Masters and Doctoral Degrees (PhD).
Previously primary school teachers who acquired higher qualifications from a recognized institution were automatically promoted to Job Group J and K respectively.
TSC has set the bar for teachers who wish to be deployed to teach in secondary schools including junior secondary.
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 in 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.
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.
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 Kshs 34,955 at minimum in basic pay and Kshs 43,694 at maximum.
The teacher enjoys a commuter allowance of Kshs 5,000 a house allowance of kshs 7,500 for those who are not in any municipality and a leave allowance of Kshs 6,000 paid once yearly. Those in hardship areas enjoy hardship allowance of Kshs 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.
