TSC plan to reshuffle school administrators ahead of January reopening

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is hatching a plan to reshuffle school administrators who have overstayed in one station before January reopening of schools.

TSC County Directors are already under instructions to compile list of headteachers and their deputies for proper balancing before schools fully resume for learning next year.

The reshuffling has been planned to happen this December to avoid disruption of learning when schools reopen.

TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia made the announcement on Wednesday. She said the transfers will not affect headteachers and deputies who are ailing as well as those who are about to retire.

However TSC is not planning to transfer the teachers outside their counties. The transfers are largely within the teachers own stationed counties.

One of the TSC County Directors did not rule out delocalization of school administrators though he said the current plan is mostly to reshuffle administrators who have overstayed in one station.

He also said there are school administrators mostly senior teachers who are earning a hefty pay in their job group but do not perform any administrative tasks when other schools are lacking such services.

Deputy school heads are expected to attend promotion interviews between 5th to 9th this December. The interviews were rescheduled following surge in Covid-19.

TSC stated that delocalisation is not meant to punish teachers, but is aimed at promoting national cohesion.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia while appearing before the Senate Committee on Education two months ago defended delocalisation of teachers, saying that it is not made to punish tutors but aims to promote national cohesion.

Macharia acknowledged that the transfers had some flaws at the beginning, but the agency has since fixed them.

“Delocalisation is simply a transfer; we want to ensure that teachers do not teach in their locality for their entire teaching life but are exposed to other cultures,” said Mrs Macharia.

The CEO said the commission has since stopped transferring teachers to far-flung regions from their counties.

For primary school teachers, she said, tutors are transferred from one sub-county to another within the same county or in counties near their home counties.

“Secondary school teachers who are transferred to other counties are those who have been promoted to senior positions which they applied for,” she said.

The delocalisation programme, career development programme and teachers appraisals are some of the policies which have fuelled a bad relationship between the commission and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).

Knut was opposed to the manner in which delocalisation was conducted in recent years saying it was meant to punish teachers.

The Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) taskforce report is discouraging the local recruitment and staffing of teachers.

The taskforce report proposes that programmes be put in place for cultural exchange and integration between different schools, so that learners can appreciate the different cultures and dynamics in the country.

“On teacher recruitment, the Ministry (of Education) should adopt policy guidelines that discourage local recruitment and staffing of teachers, depending on the circumstances,” the report recommends.

Previously, there was friction between Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over delocalisation policy, with the latter saying it is not a new phenomenon.

The BBI taskforce report indicates that ethnic antagonism and competition are a major threat to Kenya’s success and to the very continuity of the nation.

To strengthen social ties and promote unity among all the communities, stakeholders recommended that the Education ministry, through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, reviews the curricula to introduce and integrate teaching of national unity, character, and cohesion to learners during their formative or early years.

It also proposes the review of policies in the education sector that promote social integration, especially as regards admission to schools and institutions of higher learning.

The stakeholders also agreed with the BBI Report that deliberate efforts should be made to ensure a national outlook in the student and staff population in every school.