Teachers Service Commission (TSC) last month listed a total of 2,349 primary school teachers and another 827 high school teachers for failing to work out their Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) tool on time.
The teachers according to TSC had varied offences leading to their listing.
TSC said the teachers either had a TPAD awaiting submission or appraisal or countersigning by the school head or the TPAD was incomplete.
Following the listing a series of thousands of show cause letters have been issued to teachers over the TPAD offences.
Teachers, last term, were given till 6th April 2021 to ensure they are fully appraised and the rating submitted online.
The Commission officially closed submission of term two TPAD on 6th April.
However to be safe TSC teachers must understand and stick to the TPAD calendar of activities to avoid the last minute rush.
According to TPAD calendar of activities teachers should Plan 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.
Teachers should also activate their TPAD account for term three on time once its opened for access.
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 |
Teachers who do not take part in the appraisal process will not be considered for promotion, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) said.
According to TSC, teachers who do not fill the performance appraisal forms will be overlooked in case of any chance for promotion.
“The implementation of tools, processes and procedures for performance management are disadvantageous to teachers who are members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut). This is because they stand no chance of being considered for promotion when their time is due since promotion is linked to performance appraisal,” says TSC.
The teachers’ employer said the appraisal system has been in place since 2016 on pilot basis, and running without being contested by any teachers union.
The Commission clarifications on TPAD:
I. Performance Contract (PC): Performance Contract for heads of primary and secondary institutions is available on the TSC website.
The heads of institution are required to follow the PC calendar of activities which also provides that the PC should be downloaded and signed as required.
Once this has been done, the heads of institution are required to develop the Operational workplan which can be done on the TPAD online system.
2. Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD): Due to the complexities caused by the design of the TPAD online system, it has been decided that all data, for both term 2 and term 3 be done on Term 2 2021.
This means that teachers teaching grade 4, class 8 and form 4 can input the data on learners’ progress on the term 2 2021 portal and not on term 3 2021 as had earlier been communicated in the memo.
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 the schools were opened.
4. Lesson Observation: The TPAD online system provides for lesson observation which should be done at least once a term.
5. Missing schools: A list of schools missing from the TPAD system in respective Counties should be submitted to the Commission.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
On teachers’ performance contracting, Knut claims that the appraisal tools set by TSC has greatly demoralized teachers, reduced the teacher- children contact time and it is too expensive.
“The appraisal programme is too expensive for teachers, since they spend a lot of time in cyber cafes trying to handle it.
In some cases, the programme has pitted teachers against heads of institutions and heads of institutions against the county directors,” argued Knut.
