The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has extended the online application exercise for deployment of primary school teachers to junior secondary schools (JSS).
TSC will from February deploy P1 teachers to teach Grade 7, 8 and 9 learners who are currently grappling with dire teacher shortage.
The Commission has extended the application period after low number of primary school teachers showed up to apply.
TSC activated the application portal on 13th January and was to close the exercise on 24th January but was forced to extend to unknown period after receiving low number of applicants.
Recently officials of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) urged TSC to drop its hard stance on academic requirements for deploying P1 teachers to JSS for the sake of learners.
Instead TSC was asked to retool the PTE teachers and allow them teach the Grade 7, 8 and 9 learners.
In the deployment exercise TSC wants practicing P1 teachers to have degree in secondary option with at least C+ in KCSE and at least C+ in two teaching subjects.
TSC wants a total of 6,000 primary school teachers to deploy them to work in junior secondary.
The Commission has been criticized for overlooking P1 teachers who are best suited to teach subjects such as Music, Art and Craft, P.E which JSS teachers are struggling with.
TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia revealed the Commission requires a total of 72,422 teachers to address the teacher shortage in JSS.
Macharia said the Commission requires a total of 149,350 teachers to handle Grade 7, 8 and 9.
She said currently TSC has employed 76,928 teachers in junior secondary representing 51.5% of the requirement.
These are 39,550 junior secondary school teachers who were first recruited on internship terms but have since been confirmed.
8,378 P1 teachers who were deployed to JSS in 2023 and 2024 and 9,000 JSS teachers recruited on permanent and pensionable terms.
The government also allocated sh 4.8 billion which TSC used to recruit 20,000 JSS teachers on internship terms.
Macharia said TSC has so far retooled a total of 229,292 teachers on Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and Competency Based Assessment (CBA) since April 2019.
She said a total of 60,642 JSS teachers have been retooled from May 2023 to November 2024.
The Commission is under pressure to address a looming teacher crisis in JSS as currently the teacher to class ratio is 1:1;
The Commission has been deploying P1 teachers since 2019 as a form of promotion after numerous complaints of stagnation from primary school teachers who upgraded their academic certificates.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021 a total of 1,000 P1 teachers were deployed each year to secondary schools while in 2022 to 2024 around 8,378 teachers were deployed to serve the first cohorts of the CBC in JSS.
TSC will start documents verification exercise and posting of primary school teachers to junior secondary schools (JSS) in February.
The documents verification will be done by the TSC Sub-County Director who will then issue the teacher with a deployment letter.
The Sub-County Director are under instruction to sign two deployment letters for each teacher.
One letter shall be issued to the teacher while the second original letter shall be submitted together with other deployment documents for filing at the headquarters.
The deployment will consider proximity to the current station. The teachers will be deployed to their current stations or those that are close to their current stations.
Other factors that shall be considered during the deployment will be subject combination, gender and SNE qualification where teachers with SNE qualification shall be posted to Special JSS.
Candidates are expected to present the following documents during verification exercise:
i) Original and copy of the degree/diploma certificate;
ii) Original and copies of the academic transcripts;
iii) Original and copy of SNE qualification (where applicable);
iv) Original and copy of the KCSE certificate (or its equivalent);
v) A copy of the current payslip;
vi) A declaration by the Head of Institution that the teacher is currently serving in the school and is neither serving an interdiction nor undergoing a disciplinary process.
Primary School teachers wishing to be deployed to JSS must be qualified to teach in secondary schools. The teacher MUST meet the following requirements:
i) Have an active registration as a teacher with the Teachers Service Commission.
ii) Is employed as a primary school teacher with the Teachers Service Commission.
iii) Should not be currently serving an interdiction or undergoing a disciplinary process.
iv) Have a minimum of a Diploma in Education with a minimum of C+ at KCSE (or it’s equivalent) with C+ in two teaching subjects currently being offered in the school curriculum (either under 8-4-4 or CBC) or two (2) principles and one (1) subsidiary pass at “A” Level.
At least 8 units in each of the two teaching subjects.
Those with a minimum of C (plain) at KCSE (or its equivalent) and have undertaken a Diploma in Education together with a Bachelor Degree in Education qualify.
v) The degree certificate must be Bachelor of Education. Bachelor of Education (Primary Option) holders are not eligible.
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