The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started the process of deploying Curriculum Support Officers (CSOs) in charge of special needs to the 300 sub-counties in Kenya.
Unlike in the past, each sub-county is to have one SNE CSO. This implies that an officer like the Sub-county Director will be managing the special needs department in the sub-county.
Information reaching Education News from most sub-counties paints a picture of a demotivated group of officers who manage a very critical docket in the commission.
Most CSOs reported to their sub-counties to a very cold reception from their bosses. Upto now some have no place to call office. They are forced to operate from their living rooms as they visit schools to carry out assessments.
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The officers are finding it a daunting task to traverse the whole sub-county as they do their work. There are no vehicles and motorbikes to ease their movements. To worsen the situation is the fact that the commission gives them the same commuter allowance as the CSOs in charge of zones despite manning a whole sub-county.
Moreover, they do not get the special allowance that SNE teachers get.
One of the aggrieved narrated that he was deployed to a station 315 km away from his home yet his own county is short of three officers, explaining that he finds it difficult to manage his family and attend to his duties.
The same is replicated in most counties where these officers suffer in silence. Some are being consumed by depression to an extent of becoming special needs cases themselves.
The officers asked the commission to find it prudent to put in place the right infrastructure for them, arguing that it doesn’t make sense to post them very far from their counties with the same salary.
They suggest that there should be a vibrant directorate of special needs within the commission to coordinate their activities.
By our correspondent
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