Its now evident that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will deploy practicing P1 teachers to teach in junior secondary next month.
Details show only classroom teachers will be posted to teach in junior secondary section starting at Grade 7 later next month.
The Commission is hatching a plan to vet all primary school teachers with Degree and Diploma certificates in secondary option with a view to deploy them to Grade 7 classes.
The teachers with the right subject combination will be deployed within same primary school if their exist a junior secondary section.
The vetting of the teachers is still not yet clear whether it will happen in the County or Sub County level.
It is estimated that around 17,000 primary school teachers have qualifications to teach in secondary school.
Though some teachers submitted their Diploma and Degree certificates to the Commission and received acknowledgement letters, TSC still ordered for fresh listing of the teachers.
Through their agents, primary school headteachers, TSC ordered for filling and submission of a template it had provided in December to help in mapping the teachers who will teach Grade 7 learners.
Details which TSC wanted the school heads to provide urgently through an excel template included;
TSC number
Name and Gender of the teacher
School/Institution
Sub County
KCSE Mean Grade
Qualification i.e DIP, BED
Subject Combination
KCSE Subject Grade e.g MAT C+ & PHY B-
Year of Graduation
Year of Birth
Mobile Number
TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said the teachers who were already trained on junior secondary curriculum will retool the newly hired teachers.
“We target to train 90,000 teachers between January and April,” Macharia said.
Director of Human Resource Management and Development at TSC Julius Olayo said retooling the teachers is to ensure they meet expected standards to effectively deliver their mandate.
Olayo said TSC had so far trained 229,000 primary school teachers and 60,000 secondary school teachers on the Competency-Based Curriculum.
So far TSC is also recruiting 30,550 teachers for junior secondary school which starts on 30th 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 transition to junior secondary.
Junior secondary school has opened a door of opportunities for promotion of primary school classroom teachers who upgraded their PTE certificates to Diploma and Degree certificates.
However TSC still insists only teachers with qualifications to teach in secondary school will be deployed to teach in junior secondary. Junior secondary involves Grade 7, 8 and 9.
This means only primary school teachers with Diploma and Degree certificates in secondary option will be considered for deployment to junior secondary school.
This move automatically locks out teachers with other Diploma and Degree certificates;
Below is the list of Diploma and Degree certificates not considered in junior secondary teaching.
1) Diploma in Special Needs Education (SNE)
2) Degree in Special Needs Education (SNE)
3) Diploma in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE)
4) Degree in Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE)
5) Diploma in Education (Primary option)
6) Degree in Education (Primary option)
7) Diploma in Education (Secondary option) but lacking C+ at KCSE or C+ in teaching subjects.
8) Degree in Education (Secondary option) but lacking C+ at KCSE or C+ in teaching subjects.
9) Any other Diploma and Degree certificate apart from Diploma and Degree secondary option
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 three weeks ago they 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.
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 to teach Grade 7, 8 and 9.
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.