KNUT’s Collins Oyuu leads Eldoret Teachers in burning TPAD documents.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), Chepkoilel branch, teachers yesterday joined the fray of teachers angered by the Teachers Performance and Appraisal Development (TPAD) evaluation exercise by the TSC.

Led by KNUT’s National Assistant Secretary-General, Collins Oyuu, the teachers set the TPAD forms ablaze to express their disgruntlement over the evaluation exercise. Mr. Oyuu said the TSC single handedly introduced the policies before consulting them.

“The TPAD forms have turned teachers into clerks and today teachers have decided that enough is enough. They are tired of filing these forms in cybers where they nowadays spent most of their time instead of teaching,” said Oyuu during the Chepkoilel annual meeting in Eldoret, as quoted by the Nation.

“We want to practice what we were taught in class. TSC should withdraw the TPAD forms immediately. TPAD rest in peace,” Oyuu added.

This becomes the third case of teachers publicly burning the TPAD forms, even after TSC threatened to take action against such teachers. It started a few weeks ago at Borabu, in Nyamira County, when dissatisfied tutors burnt the forms. Yesterday, their Kakamega compatriots joined the bandwagon. The TSC sanctioned a section of Borabu KNUT branch teachers by asking them to show cause why action can not be taken against them, for burning TPAD documents.

The deadline set for uploading TPAD data for second term expires tomorrow, 10 September; even as most teachers complained of the online system’s inefficiency.

The President, has already issued a directive to TSC to review the evaluation process. Sources familiar to TSC operations indicate that the TSC plans to retain the TPAD evaluation process but, reduce the amount of data to be uploaded.

A message sent to principals by TSC Subcounty directors requires them to “ensure that all the parts on the online TPAD data are filled”. The message also asks the principals to download and file TPAD data uploads for all teachers, since 2016.

Focus will be on the KNUT versus TSC negotiating teams when they meet later this month. Already there is a spat between the TSC and KNUT over agreement on items discussed last month.