The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia says that the Commission plans to promote a total of 36,829 teachers from next week.
Of these 10,833 are primary school teachers who will be promoted through deployment to teach in junior secondary school (JSS) section.
She said the promotions will be effected from Monday since the identified candidates have met the requisite qualifications for deployment.
While appearing before the National Assembly’s Education Committee chaired by Hon Julius Melly (Tinderet), Macharia told MPs that TSC was currently mapping the teachers after they applied for promotion through its online platform.
“The mapping process of primary school teachers eligible to teach in junior secondary schools is a continuous process and verification of the mapped files is still ongoing to identify more teachers eligible to be posted to junior secondary schools,” she told legislators.
However Macharia who was accompanied by TSC Chairperson Jamleck Muturi and other commissioners, says so far they have identified 7,282 teachers for deployment.
“The country needs to know if there are any plans to promote teachers currently teaching in primary schools and deploy them to Junior Secondary Schools. And if yes, what is the number of tutors that will be elevated ?” posed the Committee Chairperson.
“TSC has through the verification of personal files; identified 7,282 primary school teachers with requisite qualifications to teach in secondary schools as eligible for deployment to Junior Secondary Schools,” responded Ms Macharia.
According to the commission, qualification for deployment to JSS include a Diploma in Education, Bachelor’s degree in Education, at least a C+(Plus) mean grade in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KSCE) examination or its equivalent and at least C+ (Plus) in the two teaching subjects at KCSE or its equivalent.
At university, one must have studied at least eight units in each of the two teaching subjects.
P1 teachers with Degree will move at job grade C2 while those with Diploma will move at job grade C1. The teachers will move to next job group automatically after completing three years.
Macharia said the teachers will help reduce the teaching load currently causing headache in public junior secondary schools.
“While the teacher establishment for Grade Seven level is 61,000 (at least two teachers per class), the commission had recruited 30,550 teachers (one teacher per class), bringing the teacher shortage at Grade Seven to 30,550.” said Macharia.
The Committee is scheduled to have another meeting with the Commission officials today Thursday to consider the Supplementary Budget estimates for the 2022/2023 financial year.