A section of teachers in Kwale county have blamed the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for slamming them with show cause letters over pending and incomplete term two TPAD.
The teachers said the Commission was unfair especially because some offences were not committed by them by their Counter signing officers and appraisers.
“I have received a show cause letter from my school headteacher who also received his from the CSO because we did not complete the TPAD process,” said Mr Mlingu, a teacher in Kikoneni in Lungalunga sub-county in Kwale.
“but I feel this is unfair because I did my part and others failed to do their part and now am blamed for others mistakes,” he said.
However some teachers blamed the TPAD system which was slow and made submission of TPAD ratings difficult.
TSC on Saturday embarked on upgrading its systems to increase efficiency on its online services.
The upgrading which happened on Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. impact on access to some online services including T-Pay, TMIS, TPAD and Online Transfer portal.
“The Commission will be upgrading its systems on Saturday, May 15 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. which will have an impact on access to online services. We sincerely regret any inconveniencess caused during the planned downtime,” said TSC.
A total of 842 show cause letters have been issued in Kwale county.
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) last month listed a total of 2,349 primary school teachers and another 827 high school teachers who failed 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 thousands of show cause letters have been issued to teachers in their counties 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.
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 |
Filling and submitting TPAD ratings is paramount for TSC employed teachers.
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.