The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has ranked counties on how its teachers performed in submitting their Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) ratings.

Teachers who were timely in submitting their TPAD scores online saw their counties performing better.

The ratings were based on the last TPAD for term one. However some counties performed dismally and this worries their county directors.

Machakos, Kwale and Kiambu are the top counties in timely TPAD submission. Indeed the three counties exceeded TSC expectation as they constantly kept the deadline at bay.

However Kisumu, Busia, Turkana are some of the counties that will have to do better this time as their rating is not pleasing.

Other counties that did better are Narok, Bomet, Kitui and Siaya. Some counties like Marsabit, Lamu and Nairobi improved but still have more to be done.

Already some TSC County Directors have warned teachers who fail to comply to term two TPAD deadline of dire consequences.

Term two TPAD is expected to close immediately after Friday this week when schools will officially close.

By last term TSC officials from Upper Hill had visited twenty six counties to check on TPAD implementation in schools.

During the visits, the Commission insisted that teachers should attach evidence in their online TPAD submissions.

The officials also asked teachers to stick to the TPAD calendar of activities that will ensure smooth process with little collisions.

According to TPAD calendar of activities teachers are supposed to plan for meetings before school opening involving all staff to set school TPAD Activity calendar.

The meeting should happen during the last week of school holiday and attended by all teachers including the school head.

Heads of institution should ensure teachers avail their professional documents during the first week after reopening for approval.

From the second week teachers (Appraisees and appraisers) should start undertaking lesson observations and identifying and documenting teacher’s professional gaps. This is a continuous process going through to tenth week.

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

TSC launched the TPAD tool in 2015 and later moved it online in 2016. In 2019 the Commission enhanced the tool by incorporating other tools including Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules and renamed it TPAD2.

TPAD is a mandatory tool which the Commission also uses to promote teachers. 

According to TSC teachers who do not take part in the appraisal process will not be considered for promotion.

TSC said teachers who do not fill the performance appraisal forms will be overlooked in case of any chance for promotion.

Such teachers will also be subjected to disciplinary process inline with teachers code of regulations.

TEACHERS TO START ONLINE TPD TRAINING ON 27TH DECEMBER

From 27th December 2021, teachers will start their 30 year training programme dubbed Teacher Professional Development (TPD).

The training will take 5 days of each school holiday. TSC has already released a list of training centres for teachers.

TSC says both public and private school registered teachers should enroll for the mandatory training which starts this December.

Teachers will pay TPD service providers a capacity building fee of sh. 6,000 yearly.

Most of the service providers have spread the fee to ease the payment burden for teachers.

Its CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia recently warned teachers who will fail to attend the training that they will be dealt with accordingly.

“Teachers who will fail to take the teaching certificate will be dealt with according to the code of regulations for teachers,” said Nancy Macharia in Naivasha.

She said all teachers who will attend the training this December will be issued with a teaching certificate (license).

The license will also be renewed after every five years and only after successfully taking the modules.

The Commission says, TPD points, transcript and a certificate will be issued after successful completion of every module.

Teachers will earn TPD points at the end of each year. Teachers will earn 60 TPD points based on the prescribed modules.

Teachers will also earn 40 TPD points based on professional learning captured under TPAD e.g INSETS by CEMASTEA.

The Commission says the accumulated TPD points will be used to Renew Teaching Certificate of successful participants every 5 years.

Currently only four institutions have been accredited to offer TPD training. These are Mount Kenya University, Kenyatta University, Riara University and Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI).

The Commission says more service providers will  be selected competitively through a procurement process in 2023.

TSC says the TPD service providers must be recognized and registered with the Commission to offer services which must address the 7 KePTS.

Kenya Professional Teaching Standards(KePTS) are a set of competency statements that describe what a Kenyan teacher should Know and able to do to enable all learners acquire the expected different learning outcomes in the curriculum.

The seven KePTS standards are;

•  Standard 1:   Teacher Promotes Professionalism throughout their Career

•  Standard  2: Teacher has Pedagogical Content Knowledge and understanding of competency based curriculum and how to implement it.

•  Standard 3: Teacher has knowledge on assessment and reporting

•  Standard 4:  Teacher Knows how to Create and Support Inclusive Education Practices

•  Standard 5:Teacher knows and promotes comprehensive school health and safety

•  Standard 6: Teacher has knowledge of financial literacy skills

•  Standard 7: Teacher knows and practices instructional leadership.

Teachers will first enroll for Introductory Module which will last for 1 year i.e December 2021 to December 2022.

The Introductory Module which starts this December, will be done through online webinar.

TPD  activities will be evaluated based on authentic assessment which will include :

•  Reflective journal

•  Participant led final synthesis

•  Individual Professional Portfolio development and Presentation

TSC PROMOTES TEACHERS TO BE ADMINISTRATORS

In September this year, TSC advertised massive promotion posts to administrative grades. TSC directed those interested to apply online by 28th September 2021.

Applicants were required to upload the following documents which TSC said MUST be valid during applications;

a) Letter of appointment to the current grade

b) Letter of appointment to the current responsibility

c) Certificate of good conduct from Directorate of Criminal Investigations

d) Clearance certificate by Higher Education Loans Board (HELB)

e) Clearance application from Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission

f) Clearance certificate from a Credit Reference bureau

g) Tax compliance certificate from Kenya Revenue Authority

TSC advertised promotion posts for curriculum support officers, senior lecturers, principals, deputy principals, head teachers, deputy head teachers, senior teachers, senior masters, primary and secondary teachers.

The Commission allowed access to the previous TPAD appraisals for interested applicants to download and present during the upcoming interviews.

TSC issued the following directive to County directors regarding the online TPAD system.

1. Lesson Observation: The TPAD online system provides for lesson observation which should be done at least once a term.

2. Missing schools: A list of schools missing from the TPAD system in respective Counties should be submitted to the Commission.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Cancellation is done when there is inconsistency in the marks allocated and when there is suspicion of collusion between the appraiser and appraisee and is only carried out by the countersigning officer.

There have been cases where the teachers have complained about the cancellation of their appraisals. Therefore, this function should always be done with utmost care and fairness.

7. Reversal: This option has been  provided to TSC TPAD system administrators who can reverse a ‘not on  duty’ procedure and also the appraisal especially when the teacher has chosen the wrong standards.

a. However, there have been many cases of not on duty which requires the teacher to indicate reasons why they are not on duty such as leaves.

It should be emphasized that the not on duty procedure is not a one off button and therefore cannot be chosen by mistake. 

Therefore, teachers should  be asked to be keen as they fill in the appraisal.

b. Also recorded are the cases of teachers who have chosen the SNE standards.

Once the case is checked, it is noted that the teachers have already been appraised and even have a TPAD score.  

Once an appraisal has been rated by the appraiser it cannot be reversed.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has ranked counties on how its teachers performed in submitting their Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) ratings.

Teachers who were timely in submitting their TPAD scores online saw their counties performing better.

The ratings were based on the last TPAD for term one. However some counties performed dismally and this worries their county directors.

Machakos, Kwale and Kiambu are the top counties in timely TPAD submission. Indeed the three counties exceeded TSC expectation as they constantly kept the deadline at bay.

However Kisumu, Busia, Turkana are some of the counties that will have to do better this time as their rating is not pleasing.

Other counties that did better are Narok, Bomet, Kitui and Siaya. Some counties like Marsabit, Lamu and Nairobi improved but still have more to be done.

Already some TSC County Directors have warned teachers who fail to comply to term two TPAD deadline of dire consequences.

Term two TPAD is expected to close immediately after Friday this week when schools will officially close.

By last term TSC officials from Upper Hill had visited twenty six counties to check on TPAD implementation in schools.

During the visits, the Commission insisted that teachers should attach evidence in their online TPAD submissions.

The officials also asked teachers to stick to the TPAD calendar of activities that will ensure smooth process with little collisions.

According to TPAD calendar of activities teachers are supposed to plan for meetings before school opening involving all staff to set school TPAD Activity calendar.

The meeting should happen during the last week of school holiday and attended by all teachers including the school head.

Heads of institution should ensure teachers avail their professional documents during the first week after reopening for approval.

From the second week teachers (Appraisees and appraisers) should start undertaking lesson observations and identifying and documenting teacher’s professional gaps. This is a continuous process going through to tenth week.

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

TSC launched the TPAD tool in 2015 and later moved it online in 2016. In 2019 the Commission enhanced the tool by incorporating other tools including Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules and renamed it TPAD2.

TPAD is a mandatory tool which the Commission also uses to promote teachers. 

According to TSC teachers who do not take part in the appraisal process will not be considered for promotion.

TSC said teachers who do not fill the performance appraisal forms will be overlooked in case of any chance for promotion.

Such teachers will also be subjected to disciplinary process inline with teachers code of regulations.

TEACHERS TO START ONLINE TPD TRAINING ON 27TH DECEMBER

From 27th December 2021, teachers will start their 30 year training programme dubbed Teacher Professional Development (TPD).

The training will take 5 days of each school holiday. TSC has already released a list of training centres for teachers.

TSC says both public and private school registered teachers should enroll for the mandatory training which starts this December.

Teachers will pay TPD service providers a capacity building fee of sh. 6,000 yearly.

Most of the service providers have spread the fee to ease the payment burden for teachers.

Its CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia recently warned teachers who will fail to attend the training that they will be dealt with accordingly.

“Teachers who will fail to take the teaching certificate will be dealt with according to the code of regulations for teachers,” said Nancy Macharia in Naivasha.

She said all teachers who will attend the training this December will be issued with a teaching certificate (license).

The license will also be renewed after every five years and only after successfully taking the modules.

The Commission says, TPD points, transcript and a certificate will be issued after successful completion of every module.

Teachers will earn TPD points at the end of each year. Teachers will earn 60 TPD points based on the prescribed modules.

Teachers will also earn 40 TPD points based on professional learning captured under TPAD e.g INSETS by CEMASTEA.

The Commission says the accumulated TPD points will be used to Renew Teaching Certificate of successful participants every 5 years.

Currently only four institutions have been accredited to offer TPD training. These are Mount Kenya University, Kenyatta University, Riara University and Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI).

The Commission says more service providers will  be selected competitively through a procurement process in 2023.

TSC says the TPD service providers must be recognized and registered with the Commission to offer services which must address the 7 KePTS.

Kenya Professional Teaching Standards(KePTS) are a set of competency statements that describe what a Kenyan teacher should Know and able to do to enable all learners acquire the expected different learning outcomes in the curriculum.

The seven KePTS standards are;

•  Standard 1:   Teacher Promotes Professionalism throughout their Career

•  Standard  2: Teacher has Pedagogical Content Knowledge and understanding of competency based curriculum and how to implement it.

•  Standard 3: Teacher has knowledge on assessment and reporting

•  Standard 4:  Teacher Knows how to Create and Support Inclusive Education Practices

•  Standard 5:Teacher knows and promotes comprehensive school health and safety

•  Standard 6: Teacher has knowledge of financial literacy skills

•  Standard 7: Teacher knows and practices instructional leadership.

Teachers will first enroll for Introductory Module which will last for 1 year i.e December 2021 to December 2022.

The Introductory Module which starts this December, will be done through online webinar.

TPD  activities will be evaluated based on authentic assessment which will include :

•  Reflective journal

•  Participant led final synthesis

•  Individual Professional Portfolio development and Presentation

TSC PROMOTES TEACHERS TO BE ADMINISTRATORS

In September this year, TSC advertised massive promotion posts to administrative grades. TSC directed those interested to apply online by 28th September 2021.

Applicants were required to upload the following documents which TSC said MUST be valid during applications;

a) Letter of appointment to the current grade

b) Letter of appointment to the current responsibility

c) Certificate of good conduct from Directorate of Criminal Investigations

d) Clearance certificate by Higher Education Loans Board (HELB)

e) Clearance application from Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission

f) Clearance certificate from a Credit Reference bureau

g) Tax compliance certificate from Kenya Revenue Authority

TSC advertised promotion posts for curriculum support officers, senior lecturers, principals, deputy principals, head teachers, deputy head teachers, senior teachers, senior masters, primary and secondary teachers.

The Commission allowed access to the previous TPAD appraisals for interested applicants to download and present during the upcoming interviews.

TSC issued the following directive to County directors regarding the online TPAD system.

1. Lesson Observation: The TPAD online system provides for lesson observation which should be done at least once a term.

2. Missing schools: A list of schools missing from the TPAD system in respective Counties should be submitted to the Commission.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Cancellation is done when there is inconsistency in the marks allocated and when there is suspicion of collusion between the appraiser and appraisee and is only carried out by the countersigning officer.

There have been cases where the teachers have complained about the cancellation of their appraisals. Therefore, this function should always be done with utmost care and fairness.

7. Reversal: This option has been  provided to TSC TPAD system administrators who can reverse a ‘not on  duty’ procedure and also the appraisal especially when the teacher has chosen the wrong standards.

a. However, there have been many cases of not on duty which requires the teacher to indicate reasons why they are not on duty such as leaves.

It should be emphasized that the not on duty procedure is not a one off button and therefore cannot be chosen by mistake. 

Therefore, teachers should  be asked to be keen as they fill in the appraisal.

b. Also recorded are the cases of teachers who have chosen the SNE standards.

Once the case is checked, it is noted that the teachers have already been appraised and even have a TPAD score.  

Once an appraisal has been rated by the appraiser it cannot be reversed.