The Teacher Service Commission (TSC) will reshuffle school administrators within their counties once school learning program resumes in May, a top TSC source has revealed.
Already TSC County and Sub County Directors are under instructions to ensure the exercise is carried out successfully.
According to our source, school heads and their deputies will be the most affected in this plan which is aimed to enhance efficiency.
Those affected will pick their transfer letters at their respective Sub county offices.
Following the increasing number of Covid- 19 cases, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday, March 26 suspended all physical learning activities until further notice.
The President’s order only spared Form Four students who are currently undertaking their KCSE exams which started on Friday, March 26 and enters its sixth day today.
“In respect to education in Kenya there shall be immediate suspension of all on-going physical learning in all our institutions including universities and tertiary and vocational colleges, other than for candidates sitting for the examinations and those in medical training institutions, until otherwise notified,” Kenyatta said.
However TSC will not delocalize school administrators when schools reopen in May due to the increased Covid-19 cases in many parts of the country.
TSC has repeatedly stated that delocalization is not meant to punish teachers, but is aimed at promoting national cohesion.
Already some counties are under lockdown and are said to be super spreaders of the deadly virus.
The counties under lockdown are Nairobi, Machakos, Kajiado, Kiambu and Nakuru.
Last month TSC dismissed claims that there are plans for a mass transfer (delocalization) of teachers countrywide.
TSC released a statement to newsrooms after the Standard newspaper reported that TSC is planning and set for mass transfer of teachers once national exams are completed.
The commission said an internal memo that was cited by the newspaper only sought routine field data on staffing of schools for planning purposes but was not meant to initiate transfers.
“Our attention has been drawn to a story in the Standard of today, 9th March 2021, under the headline TSC sets pace for Fresh round of mass transfers. The TSC wishes to refute the claims made in the story that the Commission plans to conduct a mass transfer of teachers countrywide,” said Rita Wahome, the Director of Staffing.
TSC further stated that its Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia announced ahead of the reopening of schools in January 2021 that the commission would not conduct mass transfer of teachers this year owing to the challenges arising from COVID- 19.
Additionally, the congested revised academic calendar leading to national examinations in March was also noted as a reason for not undertaking any transfer of teachers.
The commission said Dr. Macharia assured the country that only those positions left vacant through natural attrition will be filled.
“The Commission, therefore, wishes to assure teachers that the Commission does not plan to effect any mass transfers as alleged in the newspaper story. Teachers must be left to continue conducting their normal teaching duties and conduct the national examinations without any interference,” the statement adds.
Nancy Macharia, last year, 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.