TSC shocker: Inside new proposals to strip power, transfer roles to ministry
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) may lose its authority over roughly 350,000 teachers.
If education changes are implemented, the TSC may no longer be an employer and regulator, according to the Saturday Standard.
TSC is a constitutional commission that registers, recruits, and employs teachers under Article 237 (1).
The Commission can also promote, transfer, punish, and fire teachers.
This constitutional duty gives the TSC sole authority over teachers without ministerial involvement.
The ministry will control TSC operations and totally assume some tasks, according to Saturday Standard suggestions.
In a change from current practise, TSC must contact the ministry when recruiting, deploying, and transferring teachers.
The ministry would also have the right to hold government school head teachers and principals and curriculum tutors accountable.
Kenya Professional Teaching Standards (KePTS) would regulate teaching to professionalise it.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) draught report includes these suggestions.
Saturday Standard reported that these ideas will be revised before the president receives the final report.
If the final report accepts this, the new teaching regulator would be constituted within a year.
Since there is no obvious boundary between employer and regulator, task force members said these proposals were influenced by education sector concern.
The Ministry of Education‘s lack of authority over teachers who operate government-owned schools and administer education curriculum has long been a source of discontent.
The issue is that TSC teachers work for the ministry of Education, which is supposed to supervise and evaluate their curriculum delivery.
These teachers are promoted, moved, and deployed without ministry approval.
According to task force sources, Kenyans raised various concerns during stakeholder interactions, alleging that TSC’s exclusive supervision of instructors has caused unruliness, especially among school heads.
Saturday Standard reports that the education reforms team has developed far-reaching proposals that may limit TSC powers to human resource responsibilities, some of which it will undertake in close coordination with the Ministry.
The working party wants TSC to engage with the Ministry before transferring, deploying, and promoting teachers.
The panel also wants the Ministry of Education to retrain teachers and delink the regulator position from TSC to professionalise teaching.
The committee also suggests that the Education Appeals Tribunal handle teacher punishment appeals.
TSC’s employer and regulator powers will be greatly reduced if these ideas are included in the final report and ratified by Kenyans.
Headteachers and principals will now report to the ministry instead than their employer, a huge change.
The draught report criticises TSC for primarily deploying and redeploying staff to public schools.
Insiders say this has hampered the Ministry’s ability to oversee education policy, standards, and curricula.
The Education ministry will account for and authorise headteachers and principals under the proposed model.
Task force members contended that TSC does not have the mandate to supervise financial management at the school, creating a caveat in ensuring schools use funding properly.
Members say this approach hinders the ministry’s capacity to account for school funds.
The preliminary report states that the Ministry of Education cannot penalise a headteacher or principal for mismanaging finances or resources.
The TSC can now reprimand teachers, but the Education Appeals Tribunal will hear appeals. The Teachers Service Review group, a TSC ad-hoc group, reviews disciplinary committee appeals.
The draught report suggests the Education Appeals Tribunal hear TSC appeals.
If proposals reach final report, TSC will lose its quality assurance function.
The team advises strengthening the quality assurance directorate and giving it the power to close organisations that violate legislation.
The directorate will enforce laws, rules, policies, and guidelines and construct a reward and sanction system.
TSC registers teachers but may not preserve their records. The draught report recommends that the data commissioner, according to the data protection Act, hold the documents instead of TSC.
The forms team wants the ministry to negotiate and procure teacher’s medical scheme, unlike TSC.
TSC shocker: Inside new proposals to strip power, transfer roles to ministry
TSC was also tasked with career progression and professional development.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers criticised TSC’s 2017 Teacher Professional Development courses.
The team now wants the Ministry to retrain teachers.
The Kenya School of Teacher Education Management (KeSTEM) will oversee all in-service teacher CPD initiatives.
Task force insiders estimate two years for this.
TSC previously mandated career growth and professional development for all teachers.
Career advancement rules determined teacher promotions.
TSC professional development is prohibited, according to the team.
The report states that section 35(2) of the TSC Act is invalid since Article 237 does not require capacity building.
The report requires the ministry to take over within two years following implementation.
