TSC set to deploy primary school teachers to junior secondary

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is set to deploy a clique of primary school teachers to support learning in junior secondary schools.

The Commission has already sent instructions to its county and sub county officers on the deployment process which is set to start immediately after conclusion of the national exams and assessments.

Some of the details and documents teachers will be required to submit through their Heads of Institutions (HOI’s) to facilitate their deployment include;

1. ID Number
2. KCE/KCSE/ ‘A’ Level Certificates (whichever are applicable for all attempts)
3. Diploma/Degree certificate
4. Official transcripts
5. Indicate Area of specialization and teaching subjects if any in a plane paper. This includes-
   i. Diploma in Education/SNE/ECDE/…. + teaching subjects specialized in if any.
   ii. Degree such as BED Arts/Science; in SNE/ECDE, etc indicate the teaching subjects specialized in.
   iii. Full Name
   iv. School.
   v. Mobile Number
   vi. Designation (Teacher, Senior Teacher, Deputy, HOI).

The Commission outlined its preparedness for the transition to Grade 9 under the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), noting that it has recruited 48,550 teachers over the past two financial years.

Of these, 39,550 are interns, while 9,000 were employed on permanent terms. Also a total of 8,378 primary school teachers were deployed to Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in the last two years, raising the total number of JSS teachers to 56,928.

TSC has this financial year only deployed close to one thousand primary school teachers to serve in special schools and units.

Most of the deployments happened in the month of October and some in the end of September.

TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia had said TSC will deploy a total of 3,600 teachers to serve in special schools and units.

Macharia said the Commission will promote an excess of 18,057 teachers working in primary schools to teach in JSS and special schools.

While appearing before the Cohesion and Equal Opportunities Committee, Macharia had said the deployments will be done starting September this year.

Macharia said other sets of deployments will happen in January and June 2025. TSC is targeting teachers with Diplomas and Degree in Special Needs Education (SNE) for deployment to special schools and units.

“Due to budget constraints, the Commission has developed a phased deployment of teachers to Special needs schools to address the shortage,” Macharia told the Committee led by Hon Adan Haji.

The Committee was also informed that the Special Needs Schools in the country were facing a shortage of 5,362 teachers.

Macharia explained that TSC hired and deployed 1,763 teachers to schools in the month of May 2024.

Primary school teachers with Diplomas in SNE will be posted to serve in primary special schools and units inline with their areas of specialization.

On junior secondary the Commission said that it immediately needs at least 70,000 teachers to handle grades 7, 8 and 9.

Currently TSC is planning to deploy thousands of PTE teachers with various Diplomas and Degree certificates related to education.

Teachers at grades B5 and C1 who hold a bachelors degree will be issued with appointment letters to grade C2.

Teachers at grade B5 who hold a diploma in education related field will be issued with appointment letters to grade C1.

Teachers at grade C2 who holds a bachelors degree and were promoted on or before 26th March 2021 will be issued with appointment letters to grade C3.

Teachers at grade C1 who hold a diploma certificate and were promoted on or before 26th March 2021 will be issued with appointment letters to grade C2.

Teachers at grade C1 who hold a diploma certificate and have not completed three or more years will only be issued with deployment letters but will not move a grade as well as teachers at grade C2 who hold a diploma certificate.

The Commission already generated lists from its database per county containing names of P1 teachers with various Diploma and Degree certificates for deployment to grade nine.

TSC collected additional data of the teachers from Heads of Institutions (HOI’s) that will then be followed by documents verification and subsequent posting at the sub county level.

In an excel template TSC wanted primary school heads to provide the teachers KCSE mean grade, specialization e.g. BED ARTS,BED Primary option , BED SCIENCE, BED ECDE, BED SNE, Dip in education, Dip SNE, Dip ECDE as well as two teaching subjects with mean grade for those with secondary option.

Listed for deployment were also deputies and headteachers. Currently TSC is facing staffing crisis in junior schools.

TSC has lowered the requirements to teach in junior school with teachers possessing degree in primary option, ECDE and SNE included for deployment.

Previously teachers were required to have degree in secondary option with C+ in KCSE as well as C+ in the two teaching subjects for deployment to junior school.