17,000 Primary school teachers will be deployed to teach junior secondary school (JSS) wen grade 7 rolls out in January and all of them will be promoted.

The said teachers will be added to the 30,550 new recruits that the government will hire to teach junior high schools, which will be domiciled in primary schools.

This latest move will be a relief to thousands of teachers in lower job groups, but who have acquired diploma and degree qualifications, which are the minimum requirements to teach in JSS.

“We’re currently mapping those teachers and shortly, we’ll get the numbers right,” said Calvin Anyuor, the director of legal and industrial relations at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). He was representing the CEO of the commission, Ms Nancy Macharia when the commissioners appeared before the Education and Research committee of the National Assembly to give information on the promotion of teachers.

The commission has been accused of failing to promote some teachers even though they have the necessary qualifications. Some of the teachers have been in acting capacities for a long time without promotion while others retired before they could be promoted.

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Last week, Macharia also appeared before the commission on the same matter and the controversial delocalisation policy.

Teachers’ unions have previously put the number of teachers due for a promotion at about 17,000.

Anyuor added that some teachers who hold qualifications to teach junior secondary might be unwilling to be deployed there because they hold administrative positions such as headteachers.

The chair of the committee, Paul Melly, asked the commission to map out the staff needs for junior high throughout the country, and the teachers who will be promoted from primary schools and present the data to the committee. The chair of the TSC, Dr Jamleck Muturi, said that the mapping started in September.

“We’re progressively mapping out and looking at natural attrition because there are those who are already qualified but by end of this month, they’ll retire,” he said.

TSC estimates that about 15,000 teachers will exit the service through natural attrition and the vacancies will be advertised.

The new Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chairperson Jamleck Muturi officially reported to work yesterday, a day after he was sworn in.

Muturi, who was appointed for a six-year non-renewable term, was approved last week having been vetted by the National Assembly’s Committee on Education.

Muturi is taking office at a time when the commission   has been facing quorum problems because it had only two commissioners out of the required nine.

The rest of the commissioners had retired. With His appointment and that of Timon Oyucho, at least there is a minimum quorum for the commission to start playing its key mandate. The chairperson will therefore have to oversee negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for teachers, as the current one is coming to an end next month. The budget is almost being finalized and there has been no proper consensus on what to allocate teachers since the treasury decries lack of adequate funds.

Negotiations on the CBA have also not been started yet its late already. Should the new chairperson fail to work with speed and engage the unions concerning 2021-2025 CBA, then teachers should expect nothing this year, with regards to first phase of the CBA.

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The chairman also promised to implement fully and backdate 2017-2021 CBA with teachers who are yet to receive their final phases of the CBA, most of whom are the 17,000 KNUT members. The chairman doesn’t understand what such a move might cost him, and how he is going to go about it. This is what Macharia herself decided as a result of minor disagreements between her and KNUT boss Wilson Sossion. Completing the CBA implementation will therefore mean mediating between the two parties, both of which have hard stances.

Delocalisation of teachers, a policy which has been a bone of contention between the employer and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), is another matter that Muturi will have to deal with.

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“I will seek to engage all parties involved in a bid to address the contentious issues surrounding this matter,” Muturi told the committee during vetting.

Besides Muturi, Timon Oyucho was approved last week and sworn in on Monday, to serve as a member of TSC, bringing the number of commissioners to four. Five more commissioners will have to be appointed to make it a full house.

The new Chairperson of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Jamleck Muturi has once again promised to implement the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in full. Muturi, who assumed office this week, stated that teachers should be motivated so that they can be able to do their work. This comes at a time when Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has been in constant tussle with TSC over the manner in which the commission implemented the CBA and the introduction of Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) by the commission, which has been the root cause of endless court battles between the union and the commission, impacting on union’s operations and membership. In August last year, the commission stopped the pay rise of around 103,624 teachers who were members of KNUT.

In a statement issued by the commission that time, it indicated that only tutors not affiliated to union were to get the pay rise, saying the payroll for the KNUT members was not factored in Phase Three of the 2017-2021 CBA after a court ordered that terms be based on the schemes of service and not CPG as TSC had sought.

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“The judgment of the Employment and Labour Relation Court, has necessitated preparation of two parallel payrolls in order to comply with the court ruling without disadvantaging teachers who are not KNUT members,” the statement read in part. The commission further added in the statement that “Inevitably, this will also lead to KNUT members losing all the benefits embedded in the CPG as an implementation tool for the CBA. In addition, reversal of grades and full recovery of the previously enhanced salaries and allowances since 1 July, 2017 shall be effected.” KNUT-affiliated Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers and Senior Teachers were among those who missed out the pay rise.

In December 31st 2018, TSC filed a Petition in court after KNUT issued a strike notice. The union was opposing the current promotion model, the CPG, Teacher Professional Development (TPD) Programmes and teacher appraisal system; which the court ruled out on the matter in 12 July, 2021. By that time KNUT membership was over 180,000 and going for a strike meant that learning activities in all public primary schools and some secondary schools could be interrupted hence the commission went to court to stop the strike. In the judgment which highly favoured the union, the court set aside the performance based on career progression frameworks for teacher management and remunerations, and further stopped the implementation of performance appraisal tools. The commission said that based on the ruling it could not implement the benefits under the third phase of the CBA, which didn’t affect Kenya Post Primary Union of Teachers (KUPPET) affiliated members.

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Although the Employment and Labour Relations Court ruled in favor of KNUT, its members lost financially, thus causing an exodus of teachers from KNUT to other Teachers’ unions since July last year while others opted not to be attached to any Teachers’ union. Since July 2019, KNUT has lost up to Sh1 billion in union dues and this has hindered its operations due to decrease in membership to about 30,000 members from over 180,000. The Sossion-led union used to get about Sh143 million every month before the dispute escalated between the union and the commission.

In May 2018, the commission issued a policy introducing CPG and abolished the three prevailing schemes of service for non-graduate, graduate and technical teachers and lecturers. Under the old arrangement, all non-graduate teachers in job group G would progress through automatic promotion to job group L.

Promotions were effected every three years and based on annual appraisals. The teachers could also move from job group L to N through interviews, while graduate teachers in job group P would move through to job group R. Under the new arrangement, all teachers will be required to undertake modular training in selected institutions, which will issue certificates that will be filed by TSC to guide promotions.

It meant that teachers would no longer be promoted based on academic papers but on professional training and work output, a move that has been for time faulted by Sossion.

Muturi further stated that he will seek to improve the quality of teaching through post-college training for teachers, and just like other professionals such as lawyers, teachers should undergo post-graduate training to improve the quality of service.

“This is important for us to bring dignity back to the teaching profession,” he said. “I will engage all parties involved and address the contentious issues.” Next.

It has now emerged that TSC commissioners will serve in office for equal number of years. The government strategically advertised two positions out of seven vacancies in the teachers’ service commission, TSC to ensure standardization of retirement dates of the commissioners.

This standardization will ensure that there are no issues concerning lack of quorum in the commission in future, thus no sensitive TSC operations will be affected.

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According to Nyeri town Mp, Wambugu Ngunjiri, standardization will completely solve quorum issues.

The TSC CEO confirmed to the education and research committee of the national assembly that all the commissioners’ terms will expire in a standard way in future so that a fresh team assumes office at the same time.

Since march 2019, TSC has operated with only two commissioners after five TSC commissioners retired, making it hard for the commission to carry out its mandate, key being initiating discussions of the teachers’ collective bargaining agreement, CBA. The current CBA will end next month.

Last week, Uhuru appointed Jamleck Muturi and Timon Oyucho as chairperson and member of the commission for Nyanza region respectively. Even before his presidential appointment, Muturi had promised a number of changes he plans to do in TSC.

Being that two commissioners had been appointed in May 2020 to represent central and eastern regions, TSC has now attained a minimum quorum to carry out its activities effectively. What that means is that negotiations for the 2021-2025 CBA is now possible.

If the remaining five commissioner positions are filled this year, then the term for the seven commissioners will expire between May and June 2026. So far, Rift valley, western, Nairobi and  coast regions still lack commissioners

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Muturi’s promises come at a time when the final phase of the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement has been partially implemented by the teachers’ service commission, through a divide and rule strategy. Teachers affiliated to KUPPET have received the final phase of their 2017-2021 salary agreement while those affiliated to KNUT are yet to receive their 2017-2021 CBA salary increments and arrears.

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KNUT members have not received their dues due to an ongoing tussle between KNUT and TSC over a number of issues ranging from career progression guidelines to TPAD. TSC has maintained that only teachers that follow career progression guidelines, which KNUT strongly opposes, should be entitled to the fruits of 2017-2021 CBA, including teacher promotions.

Muturi, a former teacher, believes that a teacher can only work productively when motivated and therefore has declared teacher motivation his number one priority throughout his tenure. “The teacher should be motivated and able to do their mandate,” he said before the parliamentary committee on education.

Muturi, who was vetted on Thursday 8^th April 2021 by the National Assembly Education Committee, also promised to ensure that teachers undergo post college training prior to their employment by the teachers’ service commission.

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The vetting was led by Education Committee chair Florence Mutua and also attended by Nominated MP and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary general Wilson Sossion.

Sossion sought to know how Muturi will handle the issue of delocalisation of teachers spearheaded by CEO Nancy Macharia and outgoing TSC chair Lydia Nzomo. The chairman promised to engage all parties involved and address the contentious issues

The just vetted new TSC chairperson, Jamleck Muturi, has promised to ensure that teachers undergo post college training prior to their employment by the teachers’ service commission. Muturi defends the post college training as a move to improve the quality of teaching.

According to Muturi, Teachers who are already in service will not be left behind as teacher proficiency development courses, TPDs, will be arranged for them, which will guide their licensing and renewal of their licenses.

Plans by TSC for post graduate training of teachers and subsequent licensing have been hinted before, even before the retirement of Lydia Nzomo. In what seems like a taking over assignment, Jamleck Muturi seems committed to fulfill all the projects that were initiated by his predecessor.

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Muturi said just like other professionals such as lawyers, teachers must also undergo post-graduate training to improve the quality of their services, which currently have a lot of gaps.

Upon completion of the post college training, the teachers will be issued with renewable licenses, without which, they will not teach in any primary school or secondary school in Kenya.

“This is important for us to bring dignity back to the teaching profession,” Muturi said during his vetting occasion.

Muturi holds a Bachelor of Education (Science), a Master in Business Administration, another Master in Science and Agricultural Entomology and a PhD in Agricultural Entomology.

He is currently the Agriculture, Fisheries and Cooperative executive in Embu County.

The vetting was led by Education Committee chair Florence Mutua and also attended by Nominated MP and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary general Wilson Sossion.

Sossion sought to know how Muturi will handle the issue of delocalisation of teachers spearheaded by CEO Nancy Macharia and outgoing TSC chair Lydia Nzomo.

“I will engage all parties involved and address the contentious issues,” Muturi responded.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has nominated Jamleck Muturi and Alfred Otieno Oyucho as chairperson and member of the Teachers Service Commission respectively.

Speaker Justin Muturi on Tuesday referred the matter to the Education committee to vet the applicants in accordance with the provisions of the law.

“The Committee should notify the nominees and the general public of the time and place for holding the approval hearings, and upon conclusion of the hearings, table their Report in the House in good time to enable the House to consider the matter within the stipulated timelines,” the speaker said.

MPs are expected to conclude the process within 21 days.Oyucho has been serving as a TSC lawyer until his appointment.He led all cases against KNUT and has been instrumental in neutralising the giant teachers union.

Last month, Uhuru appointed a nine-member Teacher Service Selection panel.In a Gazette notice dated February 22, Uhuru said the team would be tasked to select nominees for appointment as the chairperson and one member of the Teachers Service Commission.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by section 8 (2) of the Teachers Service Commission Act, I, Uhuru Kenyatta, President and Commander-in-chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, appoint under paragraph (a)Thomas Koyier — Chairperson for the Selection Panel,” read part of the notice.

Lydia Nzomo’s six-year term as TSC chairperson ended on November 18 last year.

Nzomo was the first person to chair the TSC after it was made a constitutional commission. She took an oath of office in 2014.

Meanwhile, MPs have sought to suspend sittings until May 4 in line with Uhuru’s directives to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Leader of Majority Amos Kimunya moved a motion for the alteration of the House calendar to adjourn the sittings.

“This House resolves to suspend all its ordinary sittings to Thursday, April 29 and resume ordinary sittings on May 4,” the notice which members are to vote on reads.

The April 29 sittings will be for consideration of the Finance Bill, 2021, whose deadline is set for April 30, after which normal business will resume.