Primary school classroom teachers who upgraded their PTE certificates to Diploma and Degree will be moved to help in teaching Grade 7 learners in junior secondary early next year.
The Commission needs at least 60,000 teachers to handle Grade 7 learners next year.
So far TSC is recruiting 30,550 teachers for junior secondary school which starts in January 2023.
Of these 9,000 posts are for permanent and pensionable terms of service for secondary school teachers who will be posted to Junior Secondary Schools.
Another 21,550 posts went to recruitment of teacher interns in Junior Secondary Schools. The teachers will be posted before schools reopen on 23rd January.
When TSC chairperson Mr Jamleck Muturi and TSC head of legal affairs Mr Calvin Anyuor appeared before the Education and Research Committee of the National Assembly last week said they have a plan to deploy primary school teachers to teach in junior high.
Mr Anyuor, who was representing TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia, said the process to deploy P1 teachers with Diploma and Degree certificates to teach Grade 7 class in January has already started.
“We are currently mapping those teachers and shortly we’ll get the numbers right,” said Anyuor.
According to TSC database at least 17,000 primary school teachers qualify to teach in junior secondary school.
These are teachers with Degree and Diploma certificates in secondary option.
The Commission is under pressure from Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) to lower the teaching grade and consider other Diploma and Degree certificates.
TSC says only teachers with qualifications to teach in secondary schools will be allowed to teach in junior secondary.
The Commission is however asked to retool teachers with the following qualifications and allow them teach Grade 7, 8 and 9;
1) Diploma and Degree in Special Needs Education
2) Diploma and Degree in Early Childhood Development Education
3) Diploma and Degree in Education (Primary option)
4) Diploma in Education (Secondary option)
5) Degree in Education (Secondary option) but lacking C+ at KCSE or C+ in teaching subjects.
The deployment of primary school teachers was necessitated after it was revealed that TSC has allocated only one teacher per class for junior secondary.
Primary schools will receive teachers, according to the number of classes they have for Grade 7.
Anyuor told MPs there are 30,550 Grade 7 classes in the country. TSC has allocated one teacher for every class beginning January.
“If the county has 1,000 classes we have allocated 1,000 teachers,” he said.
Anyuor said the number of teacher’s is based on budget allocation by treasury. TSC chair Jamleck Muturi said the commission will retool primary school teachers.
Muturi said this seeks to ensure all schools have sufficient number of teachers.
“TSC will redistribute teachers who are in primary school who have qualified to teach in junior secondary,” he said.
He said the Commission will in January train teachers on Languages, Pure Sciences, Applied Sciences, Mathematics, Humanities and Technical subjects.
The training of Grade 7 teachers will involve these subjects and areas offered in junior secondary school section.
i. Languages – English, Kiswahili, Foreign and Indigenous Languages and Kenya Sign Language.
ii. Pure Sciences -Integrated Science Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Health Education.
iii. Applied Sciences – Agriculture, Home science and computer studies
iv. Mathematics.
iv. Humanities – Social Studies (Citizenship, Geography, History) Religious Studies, (CRE, IRE, Hindu, HRE and PPI) and live skills.
v. Technical subjects and Creative Arts – Pre vocational and pre career Business studies, music, sports and physical education Home science.
The deployed primary school teachers will be paid as same as those teaching in 8.4.4 secondary schools.
Those with Diploma certificates will start at job group C1 while those with Degree certificates will start at job group C2.
The teachers will be moved to next job group automatically after completing three years as outlined in the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) for teachers.