The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started deploying 1,206 primary school teachers to junior secondary schools (JSS) across the country as part of the implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).
In a memo dated May 23, TSC Acting Director of Human Resources Antonina Lentoijoni instructed regional, district and sub-district directors to screen and deploy qualified teachers within 14 days.
“You are required to ensure that staffing positions in primary schools are updated and teacher rationalisation is conducted within 14 days after deployment to ensure that the teaching-learning process continues,” Ms Lentoijoni stated in the circular.
Only teachers who are qualified to teach in secondary schools and who are currently employed by TSC are eligible.
The circular states that the teachers to be deployed must have expressed interest in moving to junior secondary schools and must be on the list provided by the TSC head office.
Ms Lentoijoni also instructed directors to ensure that staffing levels in primary schools are updated and that rationalisation of teachers is carried out post-deployment in order to maintain the teaching-learning process.
The TSC official stressed the need for gender parity in deployments and recommended that teachers be deployed to junior secondary units in or near their current stations to minimise disruption.
Imbalances in subject combinations
The deployment aims to address teacher shortages and imbalances in subject combinations in junior secondary sections.
"Unless a station requires more than one teacher of the same subject combination, sub-county directors should not deploy teachers of similar subject combinations with those already posted to JS," Ms Lentoijoni states in the circular.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) secretary for secondary schools Henry Obwocha praised the move, saying it would help address the acute shortage of teachers in junior secondary schools.
"The transfers are a major move by TSC, even as we seek to have more teachers employed and posted to secondary schools in the country, which has a skewed teacher-student ratio at a time we are rolling out the CBC system of education," Mr Obwocha said.
The official also pointed out that many teachers with diplomas have upgraded their qualifications to university degrees through school-based programmes.
However, they remain in primary schools and there have been petitions to promote and deploy them to secondary schools.
He called for the 46,000 teachers on contract to be made permanent and pensionable in the 2024/2025 financial year.
"Plans by TSC to employ 26,000 teachers are welcome, but we hold the position as a union that the 46,000 employed under contracts should all be absorbed under permanent and pensionable terms," he said.
