Kuppet and Knut blame TSC for teachers’  promotions

Kuppet and Knut blame TSC for teachers’ promotions

Kuppet and Knut blame TSC for teachers’ promotions

The Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) merit list for promotions has drawn criticism from teacher unions.The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) criticized the teachers’ employer for withholding some information on teachers who were promoted.The unions questioned the commission’s decision to exclude the real names from the public TSC numbers in order to facilitate an audit.

The unions said that even deceased teachers might be placed on the merit list if the real names were withheld.

“We are utterly repulsed by what has been introduced. Numerous complaints from educators questioning the criteria applied during the interview process to choose promotion recipients have come to our attention. Collins Oyuu, the Knut Secretary General, stated, “We are demanding an immediate response or call a meeting with us to address this issue.”It is dubious, according to Oyuu, to publicize the tutors’ TSC numbers without specifying how many were promoted in each grade and area.

“It is important we get the criteria. We have teachers who are qualified but are not promoted. Others even appear not to be qualified but have been moved. We are basing our argument on what criteria was used by TSC,” he said.

The Knut secretary-general was responding to the promotions list that TSC published on its website but left out the names and job groups.

The list, according to him, “lacking transparency and fairness.”Oyuu questioned why recent grads were promoted while a teacher who had been in the same job group for many years was left out.

“A teacher who has stayed in the same job group of C1 from 2017 had hopes of being promoted but instead, another teacher got into group C1 in 2023 then goes ahead to be promoted to C2 leaving him behind,” he said.

A teacher, Mr Kosgey who is 59 years old and living with disability, expected to be promoted but was left out.Although he still has six years of service, Kosgey said he has lost hope of getting a promotion.

“Am currently 59 years turning 60 this year. At times I wonder what criteria my employer uses to promote its staff. It’s even better if they can give me early retirement if this is to go by the frustration which is demeaning,” he said.

Another teacher Mr Kiprono said at 45 years old, he had stagnated in job group C5 from 2017 and is now demoralised.

“I am acting as deputy principal, have been a senior examiner at Knec and even taken students up to the regional level in Kenya secondary schools music festival. I have the best rating in TPAD and have attended three consecutive interviews since 2021,” he said.

Another teacher, Mr Wafula from Trans Nzoia said he also missed out on TSC D1 promotion at 60 years even after acting for 12 years.

“There was a time they said masters would be an added advantage, we produced our masters degrees. TSC said co-curricular activities and results, we produced the evidence. They then asked for letters of responsibilities we hold. They asked us to go for a diploma in education management, which we did. Which qualification is this we lack,” he said.

According to Oyuu, instructors’ depression stems from their employer’s displeasure.

“It defies reason that a 57-year-old teacher who has been inert for the entire time and is scheduled to retire in three years is on the promotion list while someone who was hired two years ago is not.” He wrote, “A teacher has written to me indicating that if I do not get a solution, he will resign by Monday.”

“It is not acceptable since the government has released the money for teacher promotion and then they fail to promote teachers,” stated Akelo Misori, Secretary General of Kuppet.

Misori said Kuppet had sanctioned TSC for a meeting on Friday and among other things will discuss the promotion issue at length.“TSC must account for the Sh1.1 billion they were given for the exercise. They must give us a deliberate strategy on how they want to remove the stagnation tag on the teacher’s face,” he said.

He noted that in some areas, teachers have stagnated in certain job groups for several years, in particular C3.Misori said that deputy principals who were in job groups M, N and P were lumped together in job group D1 while principals were placed in D3, D4 and D5.

“Most teachers who are acting as deputy principals are in job groups C3 three job groups less to be a deputy principal,” he said.

Kuppet national secretary, of secondary schools, Edward Obwocha explained that teachers’ scorecard is based on age, period served in acting capacity, participation in co-curriculum activities as well as Kenya National Examination Council examinations.

“But we have teachers who have such equal ability, who attended the interview but were left out of the promotion. Some of them have grown old in the profession and were not considered,” he said.

He claimed that despite being shortlisted, some teachers who were disabled were not given consideration.

“There are people who served in an acting role but were not included on the shortlist. Teachers are demoralized by this, because some have stuck in the same job group for a long time as new hires pass them by”, he added

The majority of special needs center instructors are leaving for regular schools, according to Kenya Union of Special Needs Education instructors Chairman Peter Sitienei, because of disparities in promotion opportunities.

“There is a major void in our schools as a result of some of our teachers applying to teach in regular schools”. Sitienei stated, “We implore the ministry to support them while keeping them in our schools.”