A total of 15,898 teachers in primary schools have not been promoted in the last 15 years despite them possessing requisite qualifications, skills and experience, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has disclosed.
In a shocking revelation before the National Assembly Public Petitions Committee, the union Secretary General Collins Oyuu said that the teachers were interviewed for the next grade by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) between 2023 and January this year.
Oyuu said that they want the teachers’ Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) reviewed comprehensively by their employer Teachers Service Commission (TSC) or revert to the Scheme of Service for promotion of teachers.
Appearing before the Public Petitions Committee in the National Assembly led by Oyuu, KNUT noted that the guidelines are not crystal clear on alignment of work performance to career progression.
In their petition regarding deployment of classroom teachers as Headteachers in schools and stagnation of teachers’ progression, the union argues that the guidelines also lack clear policy on the provision of minimum qualifications for career advancement and progression, and also lacking clear mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating career progression.
“Worse still, Career Guidelines are supposed to offer professional development of teachers through Teacher Professional Development (TPD) but for unexplained reasons, this is not happening. Based on the aforementioned facts, and experiences, KNUT makes a stand that Career Progression Guidelines should either be reviewed comprehensively or TSC reverts to the Scheme of Service for Teachers Common Cadre Establishment Promotion, and the Competitive Promotion as outlined in Regulations 73, 74, 75 and 76 of Part VI of the Code of Regulations for Teachers (2015),” reads the petition in part.
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In the petition, KNUT also wants the Commission to promote teachers based on existing policy guidelines and that promotion of teachers from Grade B5 to C1 should be automated after three years and should be Common Cadre for Primary school teachers.
Furthermore, the union demanded that advertisements for administrative positions done above board with TSC indicating where vacancies are available, and that teachers appointed or deployed to acting positions should be holding substantive qualifications for the same position or thereabouts.
KNUT also asked for the acting period for a teacher to be in accordance and in compliance with existing policy guidelines and the relevant laws with the union observing that letters of assignment of duty should be issued instead of appointment to acting positions, saying that it leads to mental illness.
By Roy Hezron
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