Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO’s tenure comes to an end in 2025. Going by the remarks the Commision’s Chief Executive Dr Nancy Macharia made during 2024 KNUT AGM in Mombasa recently, indications are clear that her reign at the helm of the Commission is undoubtedly coming to an end. The CEO leaves the Commission with heightened teachers’ promotions which are slated for early 2025.
As teachers apply for the promotions and thank the Commission for remembering them, a very crucial and important group within the commission’s hierarchy are disgruntled. TSC field officers across the board are not a happy lot. Speaking to the Education News, majority of them regret why they hold their offices due to continued neglect on matters promotions and the necessary facilitation.
TSC field officers comprise Curriculum Support Officers (CSOs), Principal Teacher Management Officer (PTMO) and Sub County Directors (SCD). CSOs continue to wonder why they have a Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) put in place in 2019 which does not translate and inform progression. Most of them complain that had the CPG been adhered to, some of them could be in job groups D2 and D3.
“I cannot show you a colleague who is in D2 or D3. The employer never honoured what it gave us. We feel short-changed and thus absolutely demotivated” said one of the CSO who has remained in C5 since 2017. He further claimed that TSC came up with PTMO position (which is again D1) to evade implementation of the 2019 CPG.
Majority of the CSOs are now seeing the need to come up with a union that will champion their issues. They also claim that the absolute neglect during promotions is as a result of them not being teachers nor members of the TSC secretariat. They claim to entirely use their meagre salary to do Commission’s work.
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A survey done by Education news revealed that unlike the headteachers and the PTMOs, sub county Directors and county Directors, the CSOs don’t sign performance contract with the Commission. This, they claim has made it hard for Salary Remuneration Committee (SRC) to evaluate and assign them corresponding salary.
Aside CSOs, the PTMOs and subcounty Directors are on the same warpath with the Commission. The two groups feel overlooked on matters of promotions and facilitation. Early this year, the Ministry of Education (MoE) announced promotions for its staff at the sub county level. The Commission should have, according to the interviewed PTMOs requested for funds to facilitate their promotions in order to match their MoE colleagues. They claim to be doing even more than their counterparts but the Commission seems not to recognise it.
The TSC field officers feel overwhelmed as they cross to the year 2025. Some claim that the Commission owe them retooling allowances which they were expecting to enjoy with their families this Christmas and cater for school fees of their children.
“Any allowance from the employer takes long yet for some us we used a lot during training. Look, my family never enjoyed Christmas at all as my payslip keeps reducing due to new taxes. Why couldn’t they pay us the retooling allowances?” wondered one of the PTMOs who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Indeed, it is pretty clear that the most crucial component of the TSC operations is dejected. They feel that they are very important when crucial data is required but overlooked when it comes to renumeration. It also defeats logic when the same officers will be conducting interviews for teachers who some, will be moving a grade higher than them. The Commission should move with speed in order to arrest this growing dissent from its officers.
By Kaptich Tarus.
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