Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will now be at the mercy of the Ministry of Education for it to execute most of its functions some of which gave it more powers and teeth to bite.
The Commission is reduced significantly and literally made a department at the Ministry of Education.
The changes are captured in the report by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) that was unveiled by President William Ruto at State House on Tuesday, 1st August 2023.
The president already ordered immediate implementation of the recommendations of the education taskforce that was led by Prof Raphael Munavu.
In the new changes which the team recommended its implementation to be done within twelve months, TSC will lose major powers to the Ministry.
However some changes will need an act of parliament while others may require a referendum.
1. Regulator of the Education sector
Currently, the Commission is the employer and at the same time acts as a regulator in the education sector.
The Taskforce has now recommended the establishment of a different regulatory body known as the Kenya Professional Teaching Standards (KePTS).
2. Quality assurance
The Taskforce observed that there was a duplicate of the quality assurance function between the TSC and the Ministry of Education.
This is despite the Constitution mandating the Commission to review the standards of education and train persons entering the teaching service while ensuring that teachers comply with the teaching standards set.
It has proposed that TSC regulations be amended to cure the duplication and that the role be solely handled by the Ministry.
Also all TSC employees falling under the quality assurance department like Curriculum Support Officers (CSO) will be moved to the Ministry.
3. Accountability of headteachers and principals
The school heads are at the moment answerable to the Commission but in the new changes, it has been proposed that TSC will only be tasked with employing and deploying.
The public service commission framework has been borrowed in the changes where the heads will be the agents of the Ministry in the management of the institutions thus accountable to it as accounting and authorized officers.
4. CBC and other teacher training
Under the current system, the Commission is responsible for the retraining of teachers for competency-based curriculum (CBC).
TSC Act, in fact, provides that the Commission shall undertake career progression and professional development programmes for registered teachers.
However, it has been proposed that the Ministry will take over the role including paying of teachers allowances.
5. Teacher Transfers
While the Commission has been making decisions on the transfers of teachers, Ruto’s taskforce has suggested that this be done jointly with the Ministry of Education.
In short TSC will have to seek for permission and approval before transferring teachers.
The Ministry will sit on the committees that are deploying, and transferring head teachers and principals.
6. Teacher Disciplinary cases
TSC will no longer handle disciplinary matters and appeals on decisions as it is currently, instead, this will be the mandate of an Education appeals tribunal.
This means any member aggrieved by the decision of the TSC shall appeal to the Tribunal
Presently, the TSC Act does not make provision for an appeal.
The code of regulation for teachers provides that the discipline process will be administered at the Commission’s headquarters and at the county level, and there is established an ad-hoc Committee of the Commission known as the Teachers Service Review Committee which shall consider and determine reviews arising from the discipline process under regulations.
7. Teacher Promotions
Article 237 (2) (c) and (d) of the Constitution mandates TSC to promote teachers. The Taskforce noted however that this has been done without the involvement of the Ministry thus a recommendation that TSC consult the Ministry in the changes.
8. Health insurance cover
It has been proposed that moving forward, a review of the teachers’ health insurance scheme be done.
This will be done between the TSC and the Ministry.
9. Management of Information
Section 42 (5) of the TSC Act provides that the right of access to information under Article 35 of the Constitution states will be limited to the nature and extent specified under that Section.
It has been proposed that Section 42 (5) be deleted.
The Commission will also be registered by the data commissioner as a data controller subject to the Data Protection Act.
The team sought views from the public and other sector stakeholders to inform its terms of reference with respect to the reform of the education sector in Kenya.
10. Conduct of the affairs of the Commission
The quorum of a meeting of the commission as it is now is such that it is one-half of the members.
The new report states that a quorum shall be two-thirds of the members.
LET’S LAUGH 😁😁😁
2010 constitution vested TSC with semi-autonomous power. But what is evident is that the teacher employee became drunk & disorderly, there by from slumber it wakes, announces and implement vital policy issues.
1. AOO TSC 2.. Delocalization. 3. TPAD. 4. 30yrs TPD training. 5. Stagnation of promotions. 6. Stagnation of salaries review. 7. Many more
Dehorning & trimming TSC powers is a 2023/24 sigh of relief for all & should be embraced
The illiterate Bullies at the tsc headquarters saw themselves as demigods delocalising young teachers kijingajinga without consultation hence they destroyed the commission because of being drunk with power. Sasa they’ve been trimmed to size watajua hawajui. Clueless black Africans.
TSC ikwende huko,it delocalized us and even when the policy has bn scrapped, they are adamant, taking bribes inorder for them to localise trs,not even sympathising trs families breaking,trs committing suicide name them.Am still rotting in a foreign county with a known medical condition. TO HELL WITH TSC.
May God remember teachers who have stagnated in a job group for long
Imagine my 3 children living alone at home in the name of delocalization! Only God knows
Wueeeh!!
More coming.
Stay tuned.
Expect a failure to the pupils and students for this decision.
Tsc has been a bully enough… transferred to county of my family only to be posted in a school farthest more than where I was transferred from…to hell tsc
P1 trs may they be considered, we struggled much to earn that cert,let fairness be served to us,we are suffering to be send back to class while we are working to help our families
Hahaaaaaa! It’s done
Let TSC be checked by the ministry of education.Wee am still in another county even after the parliament passed we be taken back to our counties.Attempts to move back are futile.TSC our boss, you have made us sick, separated families,killed us through funny disease s….
We may be happy of the proposed changes but we aren’t certain of the new boss to be
They thought they could bully teachers forever. Ati TPD for 30 years, 2 insurance covers, 2 retirement contributions etc.
This is very excellent work the task is doing,t s c has been undermining and molestating teachers let the teachers be answerable to the ministry, I argue the task force also to into affairs of non teaching staffs in public schools, the task force should dismantle all boards of management in public schools and establish a department in the ministry that will be responsible for hiring,enumerating and paying the non teaching staffs in public schools because majority of non teaching staffs suffer in the dirty hands of some board of management, kindly consider these for better and efficient education reforms.
God is on the way
Even there are trained teachers who haven’t bn posted as from 2015 .what a big mess .let it be manned by the ministry .it’s rotten .
Corruption will entangle everything that had been left.
Some head teachers choose teachers to act as administrator yet they are not qualify.as they associate with Tsc at county Level.
Some head teachers choose teachers to act as administrator yet they are not qualify.as they associate with Tsc at county Level.
Justice be done to those teachers deployed to the Junior Secondary Schools and qualified to move to the next job group as some of them are already demotivated due to stagnation to one job group.
Better the devil you know
Business made out of teachers health care where you are given only painkillers. What is the need of two health care, it is a cash cow for tsc. Tsc imeangamiza walimu kweli let justice prevails now.
The tsc has been acting like a god.take for example promotion interviews contacted in March are now six months, the results come in bit s noe regret letters no information a lot of secrecy ! Very frustrating so may be things will change
This excitement could be shortlived.
I have taken through two interviews..
2020 in kilifi county…no letter oF success or regret
Another one in 2023…. EMBU county…no letter of success or regret.
Out TSC
We have no idea on how the new boss is gonna be. Celebrity as at now could be too early.
Double health insurance😂😂😂
Double NSSF,😂😂😂😂
Let’s hold on our celebrations. Mainstream civill servants are also crying.
If triming TSC powers will sort Stagnation in job groups especially at c3. And reduce glorification of headmasters so be it
Let’s pray so hard for days ahead of us to be better than the previous days. Teachers with God all things are possible .
TSC is indipendent commission and some of those duties are constitutional.Referendum required.
Excellent recommendations there by the taskforce. At least sanity may have its place in TSC where lack of it had for long prevailed. Being a frustrator of teachers when comfortably seated on an adjustable office chair while the teacher is sacrificing to the last drop of their blood is in itself intrinsically evil. Lets hope for a more humane treatment in the ministry of education.
Excellent recommendations there by the taskforce. At least sanity may have its place in TSC where lack of it had for long prevailed. Being a frustrator of teachers when comfortably seated on an adjustable office chair while the teacher is sacrificing to the last drop of their blood is in itself intrinsically evil. Lets hope for a more humane treatment in the ministry of education.
Veery commendable.TSC being worshipped like God.For teacher’s sake, thanks to serikali.Pravo
Better tht tsc has been bulling teachers…. Kwendeni mang’ombe nyinyi
The problem is not TSC as a body but the current occupants maybe insensitive to the teachers needs. Their human resources department is punitive and bullish instead of being humane. Cure could lie elsewhere not moving teachers to the ministry. Can’t abolish a constitutional commission that way.
Well done Your Excellency. Gone are the days when a teacher was the mirror of society. You stood up by the mere mention that Mwalimu was around. My teachers were selfless people whose only aim in life was to mould the future generations to be people who cared for their neighbour, people who were not selfish, people of integrity. Our teachers stayed on after school and tutored the weak children, then walked them home each to his or her mother. They didn’t ask for a single cent more than they were paid.
Today, Mwalimu is hyena No. 1. Mwalimu is worse than a common criminal. They create con classes after school, levy extra fees, and are the one and only reason that this country is encumbered with sick individuals whose only interest is what they can get for themselves, especially in crooked ways. They are the sole reason why this country is losing so much money and other resources that we read and hear about every day.
Well done Mr. President. This is a profession that must be totally clean for this country to have even a semblance of a good future. WELL DONE!!
Changes are inevitable I think streamlining these functions will lead to more transparency and accountability. Currently there is alot of confusion in the entire management of teachers and service delivery.
Thank you God
The years I attended school teachers used to have very good communication skills be it written or oral,unfortunately these days teachers lead in poor handwriting, wrong tenses,glaring spelling errors and lack of command in the language.,
Nowonder the Tsc once called them unskilled.
I wonder how this will go, already the country’s status-quo is unbearable. I hope, by making this decision, things will not escalate further. Only prayers will help us. The B.O.M should be swept off, because some have made cartels used for bullying parents and staffs in public schools.
Kisumu county TSC office, come hear this you corrupt goons. 40 to transfer and 40 to block rerouting. God himself is coming for you and your drunk principals.
Better the Devil you know than the Angel that you’ve never seen. Remember, we were in that Home, before being made Autonomous. My take! Cleaning up the irregularities could be the best, instead of dismantling a Home to join another home. There were issues in that Home. And we Separated.