P1 teachers Shun JSS Promotions for Transfers
Transfers are preferred above promotion to JSS by P1 teachers. There are 60,000 primary school instructors that do not wish to teach in junior high or high school.
Despite the fact that the Teachers Service Commission has employed 30,000 instructors in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), some regions of the country are struggling to fill teaching posts.
According to a TSC document, only 8,367 primary school teachers had relocated to work in the newly opened junior secondary schools.
Despite the fact that 68,671 primary school teachers are licensed to teach junior high pupils, this is the case.
A teaching diploma is required for deployment to JSS.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Kenya, there are 2,047 teachers in Kenya who have received master’s and doctoral degrees.
According to TSC’s reasoning in the document, primary school teachers were hesitant to transfer to junior secondary schools because the new roles offered few to no benefits.
The document is a section of the National Assembly Committee on Education’s July 11 responses to the teachers’ employer.
“Our analysis has revealed that a sizable number of teachers beyond the grade of C2, particularly deputies and headteachers of primary schools, did not apply for deployment to Junior Secondary School because they are already in higher job groups and there was no additional motivation,” according to the document.
Collins Oyuu, secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers, responded that while junior high appears to be a step forward in terms of subject matter and workload, the same cannot be said for teacher compensation.
Oyuu believes the jobs are unappealing because there is no recompense for the effort of navigating junior high school.
All junior high school students must take English, mathematics, pre-technical studies, kiswahili, integrated science, social studies, business studies, agriculture, religion, health education, sports and physical education, and life skills education.
“If a teacher can earn the same amount of money but has a heavier workload and teaches at a higher level, they will not move,” said Oyuu.
However, there is a potential for that for any teacher who is ready to move on to junior high.
According to TSC, the site for instructors interested in transferring from elementary to secondary schools is now open, and recruitment will proceed as usual.
“The portal for application for deployment to Junior School is still vacant, and teachers who acquire the necessary qualifications are free to apply and be deployed on a continuous basis,” according to the article.
To educate in junior high schools, 9,000 permanent and pensionable instructors, as well as 21,365 internship candidates, have been hired as of today.
Also Read: New Salary Scale For Primary School Teachers Per Job Group
This means that there are around 30,365 instructors engaged by state-owned junior secondary schools across the country.
Because there are over 23,000 primary schools, each one has at least one tutor assigned to the junior school department.
However, 185 teaching positions in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa went vacant during the recruitment process. Even after a second advertisement, the areas received no candidates.
As a result, CBC implementation worsens, and the inequality gap generated by the new educational system widens. Another challenge in hiring junior secondary school teachers, according to TSC, was that some educators were unwilling to accept teaching internship positions in specific locations due to the size of the stipend.
“To address this,” the letter says, “the commission has endeavored to retain these teachers in their preferred sub-county where vacancies exist in order to reduce relocation expenses.”
TSC is concerned about insufficient resources for the hiring of qualified teachers.
TSC estimates that 70,430 instructors are currently required to staff Junior Secondary Schools.
This suggests that there is currently a 40,000-person teacher shortage in the educational system.
Additional instructors are desperately needed in English, Mathematics, pre-technical education (8,385), Kiswahili, and integrated science (6,708).
Kenya Sign Language only requires 91 tutors, the fewest number of teachers required.
Agriculture, social studies, business studies, and electives tutors are in high demand (5,031).
3,354 teachers in the subjects of health, religion, and physical education will be needed.
There will be a demand for 1,677 teachers to teach life skills.
According to a study by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms, teachers were not trained in new learning areas like as performing arts and technical issues, which remained a serious problem.
P1 teachers Shun JSS Promotions for Transfers
