At least 17,000 primary school teachers with qualifications to teach in secondary schools will be moved to teach in junior secondary at Grade 7 early next year.
This was revealed by TSC chairperson Mr Jamleck Muturi and TSC head of legal affairs Mr Calvin Anyuor when they appeared before the Education and Research Committee of the National Assembly yesterday.
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.
However TSC insists that the teachers to be deployed to junior secondary are those with C+ in KCSE and C+ in the two teaching subjects.
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.
TSC legal officer Cavin 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.
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 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 Caree Progression Guidelines (CPG) for teachers.