The online TPAD (Teacher Professional Appraisal Development) was opened on 26th July 2021 for teachers to start taking their term one appraisal.
As schools near closing date on 1st October 2021, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) officials at the counties are pushing teachers to meet the set TPAD deadline.
TSC officials from Upper Hill already 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.
Nzuvu Nzioka, TSC County Director (CD) in Kakamega, says he will take stern measures against teachers who will fail to comply.
“This is to remind you to whip all teachers under you to ensure that they are appraised and countersigned by relevant officers. Take note that stern measures will be taken against staff who will in his part cause non-compliance,” said Nzioka in a memo to Kakamega TSC Subcounty Directors.
Already TSC has announced TPAD training for teachers during the one week school holiday. Teachers will be trained for one week on the new TPAD popularly known as TPAD2 in their zones.
TSC organized training for TPAD Master trainers who then trained TPAD champions virtually using Microsoft teams account.
The TPAD champions together with Curriculum Support Officers (CSO) will train teachers face to face in their zones during the school holiday.
“Every County to identify Four TPAD Champions (2 secondary & 2 primary) per zone and eight (8) SNE TPAD Champions at the County Level to be trained. The teachers selected should be those who have not been previously trained on the Online TPAD system,” Reuben Nthamburi, TSC Director for Quality Assurance and Standards, had ordered.
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.
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 |
This month TSC advertised for massive promotion posts to administrative grades. TSC directed those interested to apply online by 28th September 2021.
Applicants are 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.
The Heads of institution are required to customize the TPAD calendar provided in the TPAD on line system and share these requirements with the teachers when schools are opened.
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.
Unrealistic expectations and deadlines!