KNUT Explains Why TSC May Take Longer To Approve School Heads Transfers.
Principals and deputy principals will have to wait longer for the Teacher Service Commission’s approval of their transfer requests.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) stated that the employer must locate vacancies to allow their transfers.
Collins Oyuu, secretary general of Knut, stated that negotiations with the employer put a halt to the ‘unfair’ delocalization.
According to Oyuu, TSC received 547 applications.
“The first batch of applications was made and we know we will receive more,” he said.
“We want appointments and promotion of principals to be done within the counties they are in and not far.”
This is in response to Kuppet secretary general Akello Misori’s statement a few days prior that teachers who are content with their current positions are allowed to retain them.
Misori spoke last Thursday during a news session.
Misori stated, “We have three national exams in waiting so instead of interfering they can express the interest then it will be dealt with in January.”
The teachers have been instructed to submit their applications throughout the remaining weeks of the third term.
Misori stated, “We have three national exams in waiting so instead of interfering they can express the interest then it will be dealt with in January.”
This is the result of lawmakers compelling TSC to reconsider its delocalization policy.
The resolution sponsored by Titus Khamala, a member of parliament for Lurambi, was approved by the Parliament on November 3.
Khamala drafted the motion urging an immediate reversal of the ongoing delocalization of teachers’ workstations.
“Review the teacher recruitment policy and delegate it to the zonal level as the recruiting point,” he stated.
This indicates that if TSC is to transfer a teacher, they should be transferred to a different school within their zone.
“The delocalization of teachers commenced in 2018 by TSC, which immensely disrupted teachers’ lives, lowered teacher morale, and caused untold trauma to many teachers countrywide,” Khamala said.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education teachers have steadfastly resisted the delocalization program on the grounds that it splits families.
The lawmaker asked TSC to look over the policy to make sure it was in line with the rules of the International Labour Organization and Unesco.
Khamala said that the way Unesco sends teachers out treats education as a cultural process that takes place in the cultural context of a group of people at the local level.
TSC says that the policy was made to give teachers a new place to work and to make up for teacher shortages in some areas.
President William Ruto promised to stop what he called the “unfair” practice of moving teachers away from their homes.
Ruto said that the education charter would be used to punish teachers who did not follow the rules.
“We have a teacher who received his transfer letter while in hospital, another one here was moved from Nairobi to Kitale,” he said.
Thousands of long-time principals and school heads have been moved because of the delocalization process.
People with a stake in the matter have had different opinions about the exercise, with some supporting it and others against it.
So far, some of the school administrators who have been moved were those who were working in their home counties.
The MPs, deeming the policy disruptive, want TSC to evaluate it with an aim toward delegating recruitment authority to the zonal level.
If implemented, newly hired teachers will be assigned to their home counties, while those who were transferred will be redeployed to their former counties.
In addition, TSC would be expected to begin a full assessment of the policy with the participation of teachers in order to bring it into conformity with International Labour Organization (ILO) and Unesco regulations and practices on teacher management and deployment.
The motion says, “Review the teacher recruitment policy with a view to devolving it to zonal level at the point of recruitment.”
The policy established in 2018 has generated criticism among educators and other stakeholders.
Contrary to Articles 118 and 132 of the Constitution on public engagement and involvement of the people in the policymaking process, the lawmaker said that the exercise was not supported by a clear policy framework and was begun without the input of teachers or their unions.
“Appreciating the invaluable role that teachers play in actualizing the national goals of education; noting that a conducive working environment for teachers enhances performance; recalling that, the delocalization of teachers commenced in 2018 by the Teachers Service Commission immensely disrupted teachers’ lives, lowered teacher morale and caused untold trauma to many teachers countrywide” he regretted.
