Why TSC Teachers Have Boycotted Administrative Promotions
It is astonishing that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has not adequately handled more than 1,001 administrative vacancies in the teaching force despite advertising and re-promoting for more than six months.
Chief Principals, Principals, Deputy Principals, Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, Senior Masters, and Senior Teachers are among the roles in different institutions.
In the past, teachers rushed to fill these vacancies, which is in contrast to what has transpired now. One could wonder why teachers are becoming less interested in holding managerial positions in schools, and the rationale is straightforward.
Because of the infamous delocalization programme, which left a path of broken families, fatalities, and unhappiness in its wake, teaching has, to a large measure, lost its lustre. Teachers now doubt whether the job is worthwhile given the potential loss of everything they hold dear.
Teachers may not have the necessary credentials, claims Mr. Omboko Milemba, Chairman of the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education (KUPPET), thus they choose not to apply for promotions.
However, examining only one side of the coin is essentially inconclusive. The majority of teachers, especially those who have been in the profession for a long time, are actually entirely unmotivated because they have been in the same position for such a long time and have thus ignored requests to be promoted.
Headteachers and other administrators deal with a variety of issues, including a heavy workload, tight deadlines, adjusting to the constantly shifting dynamics of education, and unsuitable working circumstances that have even led to some of them taking their own lives.
Despite the fact that they are also classroom instructors, they must attend several meetings that are hosted by various stakeholders.
There are times when the school account runs out of money but operations must continue; in these situations, the heads must take money out of their own pockets, and the money is typically never reimbursed.
To make matters worse, inflation continues to strike schools hard even after capitation grants for schools were introduced in 2003, although the amount distributed does not change.
Additionally, anytime it is necessary to point fingers when something goes wrong at a certain school, the blame and unrelenting condemnation are invariably directed at the school administrators.
Some Boards of Management (BoMs) have an ethnocentric view of how institutions should be run, which harms the systems that administrators use to run schools. Because of the difficulty in managing schools in less globalised areas, teachers avoid doing so.
Another problem is that some parents don’t participate much in school-related activities, such as paying school fees and other compulsory levies or failing to show up to meetings without being asked, which is highly discouraging to the administration.
Other obstacles to taking on administrative tasks include students scoring badly on national exams, drug use, crowded classrooms, absenteeism, a teacher shortage, and a lack of adequate learning and teaching tools.
Furthermore, when a school receives a new principle, the community will occasionally plant informants among the support staff because of their low morale, bad attitudes, and incompetence.
Additional difficulties include those related to teacher management, such as disobedience, a lack of cooperation, incompetence, absenteeism, and the association-with-power-brokers syndrome.
The fact that a teacher’s former student graduates and becomes his supervisor with an upgraded compensation package that is nearly twice the teacher’s wage is also extremely irritating and unfathomable.
Because they want to have their peace of mind, the majority of instructors may not aggressively pursue administration roles.
Why TSC Teachers Have Boycotted Administrative Promotions
