Kuppet raises alarm on teacher promotions.

Kuppet raises alarm on teacher promotions

Post-primary school teachers want the promotion process changed to establish a pool of teachers for the new Junior Secondary School (JSS) category.

According to the Kenya Union of Post-Primary School Teachers, adequate teacher promotion will go a long way toward ensuring a smooth transition to junior secondary.

The Teachers Service Commission, according to Kuppet, was meant to expand promotion slots for post-primary teachers to ensure a smooth transition for students.

Akelo Misori, Secretary General of the Kuppet, stated that the majority of secondary school teachers have been in the same job group for years and demanded the TSC produce data on the scope of the problem.

By the advertisement on vacancies for promotions on December 2022, the TSC has finally acknowledged the crisis of stagnation among teachers,” Misori said. “However, the advertisements were for limited positions, mainly those of responsibility, meaning that thousands of teachers would still be left out in the promotions.”

Misori demanded all those who have been acting in various capacities as senior teachers, Deputy Principals and Principals should earn automatic promotions.

“We demand promotion of all teachers in Job Group C2 to C3 be automatic after three years in service. We demand that no cadre should be left in promotion advertisements for as long as it is the case currently,” he added.

According to the official, thousands of teachers were currently working in secondary schools should have been the first to be considered for promotion to handle junior secondary schools.

He said those teachers appear to have been disregarded and priority given to diploma and graduate teachers working in primary schools.

He said promoting high school teachers will be an asset to the smooth transition of Grade Seven learners.

“Such promotions have mutually inclusive benefits and could be the motivation trigger for teachers to handle the challenging Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) with the high level of engagement and positive attitude,” Misori said.

He noted that many principals in Job Group D3 serving in Sub-County schools have stagnated in their ranks for many years and were not considered for the promotion.

“According to career progression guidelines, Senior Masters in secondary schools is a substantive deployment. We had noted that most schools don’t have substantive Senior Masters and therefore majority are internally appointed by schools where they have acted for long which is against the labour laws.”

Misori said, the 1,330 teachers set for promotion are too few considering the huge number of teachers who have stagnated in this category.

Further, majority of promotions are to replace those exiting the service but not necessarily promoting them.

Kuppet has given the Teachers Service Commission a week to provide criteria used to promote a certain cadre of teachers.

Last month, the National Assembly Education Committee took TSC Secretary Nancy Macharia to task to explain why it took long for the tutors to be promoted.

The MPs threatened to surcharge TSC over its failure to promote over 15,000 teachers and hire 5,000 interns despite government allocation for the purpose.