The process of identification and selection of mentors, coaches and champions at the school level has already commenced.
The Commission has requested schools to identify and send details of their mentors, coaches and champions.
According to the employer the previous data submitted was skewed and full of errors as it did not capture accurate details as required.
“It is noted that some schools have identified teachers below three (3) years in service as Mentors and Coaches. Please note that all teachers of three (3) years and below are targeted as mentees and therefore cannot be a Coach or a Mentor,” said the Commission in a memo.
In the new order TSC has requested schools to identify and send details of the teachers who will serve as Mentors, Coaches and Champions in an excel format.
The Commission targets a total of 22, 239 teachers including those newly recruited and heads of institutions to undergo Induction, Mentorship and Coaching (TIMEC) programme by TSC.
The employer’s aim is to reduce indiscipline cases among teachers and improve on their classroom instructions, retention and learning outcome.
The programme started with training of Field Officers who will play a key role in its implementation.
“Induction, Mentorship and coaching programme is expected to increase teacher effectiveness, job satisfaction, commitment, improved classroom instruction, teacher retention and improved learning outcomes,” said Mukui David, the Commission’s Field Services Directorate during its roll out.
According to the Commission, the programme looks at preventive and corrective approaches in the management of teacher professional conduct and performance.
Basically, the programme is meant to target new teachers joining the teaching service notably new recruits and those in internship and those joining the administrative positions and those having challenges in performance.
According to the Commission’s plan, teachers will be trained in three financial years starting with 2021/22 financial years to 2023/24, having a target of 13,000 teachers in each financial year.
According to the commission Secretary Dr. Nancy Macharia, the many hours wasted inform of teacher-learner contact time results in poor learning outcomes and a drop in performance at all levels.
“To address this challenge, the Commission, in its Strategic Plan 2019-2023, committed to implement mentorship and coaching as a preventive strategy that pre-empts indiscipline amongst teachers rather than corrective mechanisms in management of discipline,” states Dr. Macharia in the policy document.
The programme is also expected to target a total of 12,000 School administrators and Board of Management (BoMs) who will be trained on management of discipline cases, and this will capture a total of 4,000 teachers in each financial year till 2024 with 2021/22 being the baseline year.
Unlike before where the commission used a decentralized system whereby indiscipline cases were being heard at County and Regional offices which saw some cases taking long before being concluded, this time the commission has decided to mentor and coach teachers’ joining the services using their fellow teachers who have been in service for a while.
A lot of indiscipline cases among teachers results to canon knowledge, insubordination whereby teachers being reported for not taking duties, missing lessons, alcoholism and drug abuse, absenteeism among others.
The Commission had suspended a number of programmes for lacking funds.
Some of them were the mentorship programme and the biometric registration exercise.
The Commission CEO, Dr. Nancy Macharia, had requested for funds to implement the programmes.
“Teacher mentorship and coaching programme requires an estimated Sh50 million while the roll out of a national Biometric Enrolment and Validation of tutors will be done at a cost of Sh342.4 million,” said Macharia in parliament.