The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has listed three conditions teachers seeking transfer back to their home counties must meet for them to be considered.
The Commission responded after questions were raised by a section of delocalized teachers on eligibility for transfer.
This came also at a time when the Kenya Kwanza government is meeting with TSC this week over the delocalization menace.
Last week the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said they are meeting the Commission for a discussion that will see teachers who are delocalized being transferred back to their home counties.
“We will be engaging with TSC next week so that the issue of delocalization is dealt with once and for all and teachers who are taken to places and their families put in awkward situation that matter is addressed so that we build strong family ties for a stronger nation,” said the DP on Wednesday 12th.
Gachagua who spoke in Karen during the launch of the induction of the 49-member appointed to submit recommendations to spearhead a review of the education said the Ruto administration is for a strong family unit and will strive to keep teachers families together.
“The Ruto administration is for a strong family unit to keep families together especially more so those teachers who are headed for retirement. We want to assist them to prepare for retirement,” said Gachagua,” he said.
However as the Commission meet President Ruto’s men to iron out grey areas in the exercise which has received heavy condemnation from teachers, it still says the policy guidelines still stand.
In an email dated 16th October 2022, while responding to a question on criteria being used to effect transfer requests, TSC says one must have completed at least five years to be considered for a transfer.
The Commission also says a teacher must have a perfect replacement and both should apply to indicate their desire to swop.
“Kindly note that for a swop transfer the following has to be met: Have same subject combination. Have finished the five year mandatory rule. Have both applied indicating the desire to swp,” read the email by TSC.
TSC board will sit and approve teachers transfer requests in January after teachers are through with administration of 2022 national exams and assessments.
In July 2021 in a move to entice teachers and respond to protests by teachers who opposed delocalization, TSC in a circular outlining the CBA 2021 – 2025 benefits allowed teachers to transfer to their spouses.
The Commission however set some conditions for the teachers to meet before they are considered.
“To achieve the family values enshrined in the Constitution, the Commission shall consider transfer requests for married couples to appropriate stations/locations subject to availability of vacancies, the need for suitable replacement, existing staffing norms and proof of marriage among other factors,” read the CBA document.
Most teachers request the Commission to transfer them back home saying the delocalization has not only destroyed their families but also killed their morale for teaching.
According to TSC policy, teachers working in North Eastern region are required to have completed at least three years before they are transferred back to their home counties.
Teachers in other regions are required to work for at least five years before they are considered for transfer to their homes.
“The teacher must have served in a station for a period of not less than three years and five years for North Eastern and other areas respectively since first appointment; unless otherwise authorized by the Commission’s Secretary,” read the TSC Code of Conduct for teachers.
However delocalized teachers should expect good news after the meeting between TSC and officials from Ruto’s government come to a conclusion.
We agree with 5 years rule but some of us have suffered psychologically, we have ailing parents who needs our help, so please our boss Dr Nancy consider us. Like in my case, I have a swop though under five years but my case is,I have my mother in law who was involved in an accident she needs my support since I’m forced to be to makueni County from kiambu County almost every weekend and I find it hard and stressful, I attached all the supporting documents but all seems to backfire. So please consider some of our conditions since we are undergoing alot.
Some teachers have medical conditions and no one wants to listen to them. Must a teacher die in a station just to finish five years ? What is the logic then? Do you even know the mental health problems teachers go through just because of those rules? Yes we apply for the job and sign the agreement but we never ask God to make anyone sick.
Why MUST you try to achieve national cohesion through forcing issues and as a result subjecting individuals to mental torture. No morale for the job; just to be frank. Many personal issues have been messed, where and how do you expect us to deliver. Teachers are sick mentally. This thing has ruined my soul n mind and after messing my life issues. We can do better when we have the peace of mind.
My marriage is now broken, no love no communication. My husband has complained that I don’t support the family projects because am outside the county. What should I do?
Am also a victim i got an accident on Sunday mtito Andei on my way to Mwingi from Mombasa,i make so Many trips from Mombasa to Mwingi my work place am so stressed up,i lost my son am at home now ,so what should we do now as teachers
Come to think of it? What was delocalization meant to achieve?, nothing significant at all, just a punishment to teachers and to settle scores between TSC and teacher unions at the expense of teachers, so insensitive! Kenyan Primary teachers are poorly renumerated and to rub salt on the would tsc sits in board rooms to make decisions that further hurt them
Delocalisation has destabilised families, broken families, made teacher families poorer because they have to live on double expenses with the meagre salaries, exposed teachers to hard and stressful conditions and the end result here is demoralised teachers and poor performance, TSC should work towards strengthening and building the teaching profession to be an enviable one not the opposite
I feel more specifically for primary school teachers who who because of delocalization have to stay apart from their families. The tragedy is compounded upon them if their husbands are also civil servants posted to faroff and outpost counties and constantly in the move every three years. In most instances their children are left in the hands of other relatives. Families are breaking apart. Am finding it sinister that TSC have to put strict conditionalities before considering transfers.
Delocalization especially for primary school teachers has conversely achieved the opposite.
I have lost touch with my young family. I am struggling to travel back home every weekend with no money. I have even developed some health problems due to use of bodaboda. The passion in teaching is no more. I wish they just consider swop without conditions
Please consider special cases sickness and families humbly
Please consider special cases sickness and families humbly
They wanted national cohesion and excellent performance in schools however the opposite is true.Kenyan teachers are undergoing mental torture in the name of helping the Kenyan learner.Some places in Kenya surely like Marsabit where TSC expects a delocalized teacher to perform miracles where the locals and the learners themselves are not ready to learn and to some extent hostile.This primitive narrative must be brought to an end
It is sarcastic that a boss is always a boss but not always right. When is a boss in agreement that the subject is justified. Am personally affected simply because of my sole peculiar quagmire predicament am in : my elder bother and wife passed on whilst in msa, leaving siblings vulnerable at class four and six, they are now form four leavers with c- not joined anywhere yet, they have tortured my ego indeed,my father fell sick asked me to come over for nursing, he deteriorated and passed on now left at sea, my wife is back at home but the strength of the rules is static but expect teachers to be dynamic minus renumerations. Life is cracking a hard nut with adough of maffis.. TSC officer are circumulucating at swinging seats no consinderation the risk allowance required. MSA pupil at where am landed are just coo cat of their parents, make noise while delivering all of a sudden the one who did not cooperate the previous day, a parent beckons at the window on an emergency failure to reception of thorough abuse and several reproaches that demoralizing progress and smart attachment. No way to shut them as they intermingle in their carried snacks as biting proceed!Do you call this a school minus discipline, no academic decorum. Sit in sofa sets as languish in thorn mature!…
The unions signed the CBA in hurry, sossion never objected the delocalization part. The TSC is autonomous body, Gachagua can only lobby not instruct it
Life as a teacher is becoming stressing day in day out. I have underwent surgery twice on my stomach. Four months ago while on my way to school, I was involved in a road accident that affected my backbone discs affected seriously. I can’t sit, cook wash clothes or travel using a public means. I stand the whole day – morning to evening I have looked for transfer back home but in vain . All tsc offices have no solution to my problem. What else??? I am patiently waiting for my death in service. Am seriously suffering. .
Imagine in a whole school being the only teacher residing in a rental house while rest of your colleagues coming from their homes …’same payment’.What did delocalisation intended to achieve or to make a big group of teachers poor.Demoralised!!!
This TSC bosses don’t realize what teachers are going through,coz they are with their families daily,
Delocalization was cooked in the devil’s kitchen before it’s implementation, to destroy teacher’s hope in their children, the only way that God would pay us now that humanity only abuses us, God is watching as you in the top seats make such rules, and you shall give an account for the mess you cause to your subjects.
I tend to think, Kenyans are happy when others are crying. They know not the ways of peace and joy. Or do they formulate such policies of torture when they are under stress???? And spill their stress to the society for everybody to feel pinch??? How do they benefit when a demoralised teacher goes to teach? Can such a teacher deliver? Obvious, the stress I’d transfered to the students.
I joined teaching zealously ,6th year am drained filled with hatred cannot afford a decent suit for myself because have been subjected to bills by employer and punitive prices of goods by locals.while others plant trees at their farms when it rains I wait for charcoal because am niche for that business. It shall be well one day.
Give thanks in all circumstances and let your request be known by God.God please hear my prayer and let me get the transfer in Jesus Name.Amen.
Let us who we are waiting for transfers not complain and be better let us believe God is/will do something for us in Christ Jesus Name.
Am tired and demoralised by the issue of promoting principals based on the type of sch one is heading.It has killed the morale of most of us…why,why tsc.You have same children yet you discriminate against them..Why can’t you be guided by your own policy..job group against type of sch?
Am one of the most suffering teachers. Am mentally tortured. No even words to express. Its doing me more harm than good.Tsc kindly help us out of this.
Just like that, tsc is making life to be short for the delocalised teachers since life is unbearable. Ee Mungu nguvu yetu.
Just like that, tsc is making life to be short for the delocalised teachers since life is unbearable. Ee Mungu nguvu yetu.
Am one of the most suffering teachers. No words to even express. Am mentally tortuted.Its doing me more harm than good. Tsc kindly help me out of this.
Was this animal called delocalization meant to bolster unity and cohesion or tear families apart? I am a victim of the same. My wife was thrown to Turkana county and left me with a 4year old daughter to take care of in Nairobi. It’s been 3 years now and all it has done is to break my marriage. My wife being frustrated by the administrators from left right and centre,leave alone the scorching sun in that desert. TSC and more specifically Nancy Macharia,are you ever at peace with all the tears teachers and their families shed?
Please consider teachers with healthy issues, some were attacked by Corona and thus facing much complications as a result of this,please consider such teachers
Its so unfortunate some stations teachers are staying up to retirement since first posting
I was promoted from Nairobi to Kajiado on promotion. I commute daily in a personal vehicle coz there are no means of transport to the school which is in the interior. There are no rental houses in the vinicity of the school either. I spent the entire salary on fuel (30k).
There has been frequent turn overin position I am holding and thus the headteacher is tired of this. He has his own staff members whom he works with and so he has completely ignored me. Im not even invited in parent’s forums because they communicate in Maasai. In staff meetings the senior teacher is given mandate to speak before I do. I declined to offer free lifts to the headteacher and some teachers and this has even worsened the situation. Is this what TSC and its boss call cohesion! Who will I withstand this for the alleged 5yrs?
TSC should allow transfer for teachers with less than five years in the first station provided they are swapping with same combination because no station loses the the teacher, otherwise this is like a punishment for accepting to be employed in the first station.
It True ,my self am a great victim, l lost my son , let me say our babies are in trouble in which where school is far , 4 kilometers away from u rent a house, my son died of internal injury which was not know earlier
TSC, you kindly consider these options a d claims in very positive way. Some of our fellow teachers here suffer a lot and miserably.
It’s my consideration that, these’re within your capability
Please help our fellow teachers
With regards from Abroads
Thanks
I believe one day God will hear my cry and allow my husband & I get a transfer home
Whatever the intentions were, really seemed ill intentioned and wasn’t well thought out. It’s a shame that the TSC program only achieved broken families, and the opposite of what it’s meant to achieve! Very painful
Some of us, teachers are so stressed because our employer’s delocalization policy is not in good faith. Why promote a teacher, who is a widow /widower/sickling and get him/her out of Nairobi, which was the most targeted area, when they remain with less than 5 years to retire,or have three to four loans running which then end up being under serviced, have medical issues,children left alone, paying two rental houses with reduced allowances in the name of promotion. Should promotion lead to net increase or decrease? It’s so wrong to even refuse to listen to the frustrated affected teachers when they visit TSC HQ to raise their complaints. Delocalization has really disorganized my retirement plans which is in 2yr time. My two daughters who were pursuing Degree courses on self sponsored programs are forced to call off their studies because l’m unable to take a loan for their sch fees because l now lack borrowing ability because of delocalization. Some people talk to us so badly at the TSC HQ, that they don’t want sick or old teachers in Nrb. Does one really call for sickness ? They should know that those teachers who are delocalised are also human beings and could be going through mental illnesses which need help as well. We are also human beings and we deserve proper treatment in order to deliver the desired services that we were delocalised to do in those particular areas.
Let them know also that single parent families suffer too , infact whenever the mother is delocalized there’s absolutely nobody to take care of the home and children who can’t be taken to wherever one goes so everything stands still padlocks on the doors, sorry state.
Talking of a swop of same combination is almost impossible
TSC has severally confirmed that in this country it’s a crime to be a teacher. Ile mateso walimu wanapitia Nancy hajui. Boardroom decisions.
God have mercy on us who are seeking for transfers
Very unfortunate situations have been explained here. It is true, most leaders are clueless !
I appreciate the suggestions by the audience and the affected teachers on the nationalisation and the effects it has caused to their spouses, parents and some being ailing conditions,my silly question is what about other government officers working outside their motherland?
Let the sympathetic heart be rolled out to all workers in all departments/States
It’s my thought that all have what teachers have and suffer from the same friction under the heavens.
The promotion that led to the delocalization has not helped me at all. Paying two house rents, living young children alone the locals using their language to teach in lower yet my kids don’t understand it, my husband marrying another wife, borrowing in almost all shops, spending a lot on transport, food, electricity and water, my house and farm being vandalized among other things has killed my spirit!! The three years have been hell on earth. I have almost lost everything I had worked hard for and I don’t know where to begin from.
I am yet to complete the five years as per the policy but i have been through immeasurable suffering. I lost my husband through sudden illness because I wasn’t near to rush him to hospital. I have developed a medical condition due to that stress, been to Tsc county offices requesting for a transfer but no one has listened to me. Until when will we suffer?
Us teachers we can’t miss money and again our freedom,I was transferred from North Eastern after having served a year now 3yrs in another station why should I miss a transfer to near my family please??
Really delocalisation is a policy to be left out for good. It has ruined families of young and old teachers. May the tsc boss take this as serious matter. It may end up to be a curse to some people . Listen to the outcries of suffering teachers.
To make it more worse,like in my workplace the community is having register to mark when I leave and back something that I feel like am not trusted enough and as if they are looking for something else, way to make me sacked
Commuting every weekend with backache problem is not a joke, lord hear my cry.
I regret joining this profession!
Delocalisation is the main cause of stress and depression in the teaching fraternity. I am an example teacher that this Tsc policy has impacted me negatively. Delocalised from Kerio valley Elgeyo Marakwet to Bomet county. I travel more than 350km to reach my work place passing over counties of Uasin Gishu, Nandi, Kisumu and kericho . What is this if it is not a punishment? If I had any other means, I could have resigned. My poverty forced me. My spouse is delocalised West pokot. Noone is left in my home. Have sold my cattle and goats because noone cares for them. Rarely do farm work. My land is iddle. Difficult to attend any emergency at home with poor remunaration and high transport charges. I pray God open a door to me. I am so down with Tsc.