The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has trained school heads and Curriculum Support Officers (CSO) on how to operate the online casualty return for the purpose of admitting and releasing newly recruited teachers.
The newly employed teachers have already started to receive their employment letters that confirms their appointment in line with TSC roadmap for recruitment.
The training mainly virtually kicked off in Counties today and will help school heads fill online entry and exit portal for teachers easily without making errors.
However some counties are yet to start the training but this is expected to happen by next week.
School heads got training links from their Sub County Directors which they used to login online for the purpose of the training.
In one of the circulars seen by Teachers Arena the newly posted teachers will report officially to their working station latest by next month (September).
“The County will conduct a virtual training on the newly rolled out online Entry/Exit module (casualty) intended to be used to capture the new teachers being posted from next month. The training will be on Tuesday 24th August starting 9:00 am,” read a memo by Margaret Amateshe, Mathioya SCD.
On 15th February 2021 TSC issued a circular blocking teachers from seeking services from the Headquarters.
According to TSC all services have been moved to an online platform effective 1st March 2021 and any serious issue that require a teachers physical must be accompanied by a permission letters from their counties.
“The Commission has allowed visitors to be served at the Customer Care Centre. Effective 1st March, 202l the Commission will only serve teachers who have been referred by the Counties/ Sub Counties offices for cases that cannot be resolved there. Further, the teachers MUST have written permission from their Head teacher/Principal to visit the TSC offices,” said Ibrahim Mumin, TSC Director for Administrative Services.
TSC launched the online casualty as part of its drive to have all services offered online and do away with paperwork.
Unlike in the past where casualty returns were physically filled and copies submitted to various authorities which include the Sub County, County and the Headquarter the new online portal makes things easy for reporting on teachers.
Some of the merits of the online casualty portal include;
1) Teachers getting their salaries on time because the online entry and exit portal is effective and fast.
2) The time and cost of submitting casualty return is cut down.
3) No cases of missing or lost copies of casualty returns.
However a slight mistake of the portal can lead a teacher missing salary or even get interdicted. Online portals are prone to abuse especially for the newbies.
The entry or exit report for a teacher is very significant. For example teachers get salary increment annually it is the date and month when a casualty report was filled that determines when a teacher will get their increment.
An entry report for a teacher will also determine the date the teacher will start to get paid. The earlier the teacher reports to school and have his entry report submitted the higher the chances for him to get paid early.
By 30th August most newly recruited teachers will be posted to their new places of work where they will be working on permanent and pensionable terms.
The teachers will be issued with posting letters by their Sub County Directors before reporting to their new stations of work.
The posting letters will indicate the school the teacher has been posted to. The teachers will also get appointment letters from their Teachers Service Commission (TSC) county offices.
The appointment letter will state the job grade the teacher has been appointed to and the salary scale he/she will enjoy.
According to the TSC recruitment roadmap from Friday 13th August, 2021 to Friday 27th August, 2021 TSC will carry out verification of documents it receives from their County Directors.
TSC County Directors will submit a report on status of teachers who reported or failed to report to their stations to the Commission headquarters.
TSC said the report should be submitted by 30th September, 2021.
Last month TSC advertised 5,000 vacancies in secondary schools to support the 100 percent transition from primary to secondary schools. The teachers recruited will serve on Permanent and Pensionable terms of service.
However from the 5,000 vacancies only 4,000 are for new recruits. 1,000 slots are for practicing P1 teachers with degree in Secondary option to get deployed to secondary schools.
TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia said successful candidates will be posted to serve in any part of the country and not necessarily in the county where they were recruited.
In the advert TSC further advertised a total of 3,914 replacements slots for primary and secondary schools to replace teachers who exited service.
TSC said 2,987 posts will go to primary schools while 927 will go to secondary schools.
To qualify for recruitment to secondary school, TSC said a candidate should meet the following basic requirements:
i) Be a Kenyan citizen;
ii) Must be a holder of at least a Diploma in Education;
iii) Must be a registered teacher with Teachers Service Commission.
However for practicing primary school teachers to qualify for promotion and deployment to secondary school, a candidate should meet the following basic requirements:
i) Be a Kenyan citizen;
ii) Be a holder of a P1 Certificate;
iii) Be a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Education with 2 teaching subjects;
iv) Must have attained at least C+ (Plus) mean grade at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent and C+ (Plus) or it’s equivalent in the two teaching subjects;
v) Must be serving under Teachers Service Commission.
The recruitment was marred with complaints by some applicants. Some complained that TSC has discriminated them by releasing a score sheet that favors only a section of teachers.
Some applicants faulted TSC for awarding intern teachers 30 marks saying it wasn’t their fault not to work under intership cause the chances were limited.
In the score sheet released to guide recruitment of teachers in July 2021, TSC directed 30 marks to be awarded to applicants who will provide “evidence of internship service”.
Graduated teachers faulted TSC for putting them in the same basket with Diploma teachers.
Some Graduate teachers who scored Second Class Upper Division said TSC was wrong to award them same marks with those who scored Second Class Lower Division.
However TSC insisted the score sheet it released is final and will be used to guide the recruitment interviews.
TSC is yet to advertise internship vacancies for both primary and secondary schools. The Commission it will hire 6,000 intern teachers but only 2,000 will be for primary schools.
REVIEWED ROADMAP FOR RECRUITMENT OF TEACHERS – JULY, 2021
| S/NO | ACTIVITY | TIME LINES | DURATION |
| 1. | ADVERTISE VACANT POSTS | Tuesday 29th June, 2021 | |
| 2. | VIRTUAL SENSITIZATION OF REGIONAL DIRECTORS | Friday 2nd July,2021 | 1 DAY |
| 3. | ONLINE APPLICATIONS | Tuesday 29th June, 2021– Monday 12th July, 2021 | 14 DAYS |
| 4. | COLLECTION OF EMPLOYMENT FORMS BY COUNTY DIRECTORS | Friday 16th July, 2021 | 1 DAY |
| 5. | GENERATION AND SENDING OF MERIT LISTS TO COUNTY DIRECTORS | Tuesday 13th July, 2021 – Wednesday 14th July, 2021 | 2 DAYS |
| 6. | COUNTY SELECTION PROCESS AND FILLING OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT FORMS BY SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATES | Thursday 22nd July, 2021 – Wednesday 28th July, 2021 | 5 DAYS |
| 7 | VETTING AND HANDLING OF COMPLAINTS AT COUNTY LEVEL | Thursday 29th July, 2021 – Friday 6th August, 2021 | 7 DAYS |
| 8. | RECEIVING OF DOCUMENTS AT THE TSC HEADQUARTERS | Monday 9th August, 2021 – Thursday 12th August, 2021 | 4 DAYS |
| 9. | VERIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS AT THE TSC HEADQUARTERS | Friday 13th August, 2021 – Friday 27th August, 2021 | 8 DAYS |
| 10. | REPORTING OF TEACHERS TO SCHOOLS | Monday 30th August, 2021 | |
| 11. | COUNTY DIRECTORS TO SUBMIT REPORTING STATUS BY 30TH SEPTEMBER, 2021 | By 30th Septemberr, 2021 | |
| 12. | SUBMISSION OF EXIT REPORT TO THE CS/CEO | By 15th October, 2021 |