The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has kicked off the process that will see a total of 1,000 PTE teachers been deployed to teach in secondary schools this year.
Already a total of 2,000 P1 graduate teachers were promoted to teach in secondary schools in the last two years.
TSC had advertised 1,000 deployment posts in 2019 and another 1,000 in September last year and has finished issuing deployment letters for the the successful applicants.
Those deployed started at job grade C2 at salary scale 34,955 per month and will move to job grade C3 upon completion of three years as stipulated in Career Progression Guidelines for teachers (CPG).
“Successful candidates under this category shall be appointed at T-Scale 7, Grade C2 under the Career Progression Guidelines for Teachers and shall be deployed to secondary schools where vacancies exist,” TSC said in an advert.
In July 2021 TSC advertised for another 1,000 deployment vacancies for practicing primary school teachers to apply.
TSC highlighted the following requirements for one to qualify for promotion and deployment to secondary school;
i) Be a Kenyan citizen;
ii) Be a holder of a P1 Certificate;
iii) Be a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with 2 teaching subjects;
iv) Must have attained at least c+ (Plus) mean grade at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent and C+ (Plus) or it’s equivalent in the two teaching subjects;
v) Must be serving under Teachers Service Commission.
Details have emerged that TSC is rushing to conclude the deployment process for immediate deployment of successful teachers to help support the 100 per cent transition in secondary schools.
In Kwale county for example PTE graduate teachers have been asked to submit a certified copy of their degree certificate to the County Director’s office early next week.
“All primary school teachers (graduates) who applied to be moved/deployed to secondary schools are asked to submit a certified copy of their degree certificate by Monday 9th August 2021 to County office (TSC),” read a message by Kwale County Director to all primary school headteachers.
At least 6,347 primary school teachers have degree with C+ at KCSE and C+ in the two teaching subjects as at July 2020 hence qualify to teach in current secondary schools.
There have been calls for TSC to increase the number of teachers it deploys every year as well as make public the number it deploys in each county after complaints from a section of teachers that their counties are sidelined by only getting few slots during the exercise.
Macharia, however, said that all vacancies are filled competitively with the objective to promote national values, fairness, non-discrimination and equity.
“The criteria used in promotion of teachers include the availability of budget/funds; the existence of vacancies in the authorized establishment; merit and ability as reflected in the teacher’s work performance; academic and professional qualification among others,” she said.
Last month TSC renewed hope for primary school teachers with various academic qualifications after outlining its plans ahead of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) classes for junior secondary schools.
Primary school teachers who hold PHDs, Masters, Bachelors Degrees and Diplomas in various academic related fields are now assured of teaching in Secondary schools after TSC made public its plans to deploy more teachers in its report.
TSC was hard pressed to issue its report on status of preparedness ahead of Competency Based Curriculum transition classes and the looming double intake in 2023.
In a report titled Status Report on Teacher Preparedness for Competence Based Curriculum Implementation which was presented before the Parliamentary Committee on Education, TSC said that it will deploy P1 teachers who hold Diplomas, Higher Diplomas, under graduate Degrees, Post-graduate Diplomas, Masters and PHDs to teach at junior secondary schools (JSS).
This is good news to primary schools teachers with academic certificates which had seemed obsolete following the phasing out of the Schemes of Service which and coming of Career Progression Guidelines (CPG).
Should TSC make good its move the following category of teachers in primary schools will benefit immensely.
1 Teachers who studied Diploma or Degree Secondary option but did not have at least C+ in KCSE and/or C+ in the two teaching subjects.
2 Teachers who studied Diploma or Degree in Early Childhood Education at the universities or in ECDE training colleges.
3 Teachers who studied in Special Needs Education (SNE).
4 Teachers who studied Diploma or Degree in Education (Primary option)
5 Teachers with Masters and PHDs but still teaching in primary schools
The Ministry of Education is currently working to upgrade select primary schools to junior secondary schools.
Primary schools with established infrastructure that can host a junior secondary school (JSS) wing will be upgraded.
Those that are under-enrolled and in close proximity will be merged and the infrastructure of one of them improved.
Some schools will have both primary and junior secondary hosted in the same compound.
Junior secondary school will comprise of Grades 7, 8 and 9. In 2023, pioneer learners under the new 2-6-3-3-3 Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) system will transition to junior secondary school after sitting the Grade Six national examinations.
It is not clear whether TSC will lower its stringent guidelines for the practising P1 teachers to teach in the junior secondary schools as thousands of teachers graduated in various institutions but do not attain the minimum KCSE grades required by the Commission for one to teach in secondary school.
Currently TSC only deploys P1 teachers with Degree in secondary option and who have scored at least C+ mean grade in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
The teachers must also have at least C+ in their subjects of specialization and must meet the minimum teaching units required for Bachelors Degree in Education.
In 2023 when Grade 6 will move to Grade 7 (junor secondary) it is also the year Class Six learners under the 8-4-4 education system will join Form One after sitting the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Examinations (KCPE), thereby presenting a huge infrastructure and staffing challenge of hosting 2.6 million children.
This has prompted TSC to act swiftly to mitigate the staffing gaps. It will be cheaper for TSC to promote and deploy primary school teachers to teach in junior secondary schools than to conduct fresh recruitment.
A report by CBC task force says the total number of Grade Six and Standard Eight learners expected to join secondary school in 2023 will be 2,571,044.
“Approximately 1,250,649 learners enrolled at Grade 4 in 2020 will transit to Junior secondary school (Grade 7) as the first cohort of the 2-6-3-3-3 while the 1,320,395 Standard Six cohort of 2020 will transition to Form One under 8-4-4 system in 2023,” reads the CBC task force report.