Governors Pressure TSC
Governors Pressure TSC
The Council of Governors (CoG) is working on a petition to ask the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to change the current policy so that teachers might be assigned to their preferred working stations in their home counties rather than the needs of the nation. The county’s governor, Fernandes Barasa, referred to the situation as an urgent one while speaking at the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Annual General Meeting (AGM) Kakamega Branch on Saturday. He expressed sympathy for the plight of the 47,000 teachers who are currently trapped.
The Governor outlined his collaboration with the Council of Governors education committee in order to present a memo to TSC outlining the issues. “We have teachers serving in other counties, and this is a matter we will bring up with our education committee so that all those teachers who are delocalized should return to their home counties,” he said.
“So that we can interact with our teachers here, we are pushing for teachers to go back to their homes. I pledge that I will exert pressure on my committee on education to send the memo to TSC in response to this petition. To the dismay of teachers and lawmakers who claimed it was ineffective, the commission implemented the delocalization strategy in 2017.
Since then, at least 14,000 teachers have been compelled to leave their home counties.However, the policy was stopped in November 2022 as a result of lobbying from MPs who demanded a reversal that would be finished by January 31, 2023. Since then, about 47,000 educators have requested to be moved to their home counties.TSC maintained during the implementation of the policy that it would aid in addressing the teacher shortage in specific regions, such as Northern Kenya and conflict-prone areas.Transfers are dependent on open positions and a teacher’s desire to fill them, the commission added.
However, the teachers pointed out that the approach is harmful, highlighting how many families break up when breadwinners are posted to distant locations. A KNUT representative was present to reassure teachers who were members of the union that the union is collaborating with TSC to ensure teachers receive salary increases.
