Schools have been ordered by The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to add all Board of Management (BOM) teachers to the Teacher Performance Appraisal Development (TPAD) portal system. This implies that all BOM teachers will have to be added to TPAD afresh since they had been added initially.

At its inception, teacher appraisals through TPAD was a preserve of only TSC employed teachers. It was not until recently that TSC felt it wise to subject BOM teachers to appraisals. It started with instructing them through their heads, to fill the manual appraisals and attach in their files. When the online appraisals began, it emerged that teachers on board could not be registered in the teacher management information system, (TMIS), and thus could not take part in online appraisals. With the new turn of events, the teachers on board will be left with no options but to appraise themselves through the online system. It is worthy to preempt that they will also undertake lesson observations just like their TSC employed counterparts.

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The Commission activated the online appraisal system for term one to allow teachers to rate themselves.

Additionally, the teachers’ employer has archived all the previous filled and submitted appraisals to allow efficiency in its online system.

The Commission has further asked teachers to stick to the TPAD calendar of activities to ensure smooth appraisal process.

Nairobi TSC regional Director, Jane Njage, asked teachers to report technical hitches to the County TSC ICT officials to ensure success in the operation.

“Any technical issues should be channeled to ICT as it arises to ensure that all teachers are appraised and the county attains 100% compliance,” said Njagi in a memo.

Last term TSC listed approximately 18,000 teachers for failing to comply to TPAD terms and condition. The offences ranged from incomplete appraisal, pending appraisal, awaiting appraisal, or appraisal awaiting counter signing and more.

The Commission shared the lists with school administrators to inform the affected teachers of their offences so they can reply.

The teachers were required to fill an online questionnaire to show cause why they were unable to meet the TPAD deadline.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC), has released a circular informing on a two-day online TPAD training for teachers.

According to the circular signed by the TSC Director for Quality Assurance Dr. Reuben Nthamburi, every county should submit four TPAD champions for the training scheduled to start next week.

“The Teachers Service Commission has planned a two-day training for teachers on the Online TPAD System for teachers. Every County to identify Four TPAD Champions (2 secondary & 2 primary) per zone and eight (8) SNE TPAD Champions at the County Level to be trained. The teachers selected should be those who have not been previously trained on the Online TPAD system,” reads the circular in part.

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Earlier, TSC had said that its coordinating training of 1,166 teachers on CBC. “Teachers Service Commission is coordinating the Training of 1,166 Tutors on CBC through a Multi-agency approach. The training started today 6th and ends on 10th, September 2021,” said TSC on.

The training of TPAD champions will be region-based. Coast, Nairobi and North Eastern regions will start their training from 13th September 2021 while Western and Nyanza regions will start their training from 15th September 2021.

Rift Valley region, Eastern and Central regions will hold the training will from 20th September 2021.

It is expected that once trained, the TPAD champions will teach other teachers during the one-week September holiday in their zones through a cascade model.

The training will be conducted virtually through Microsoft Teams as per the regional schedules

“The training will be conducted virtually through Microsoft Teams as per the regional schedules. The Commission has scheduled a Virtual Preparation Meeting through Microsoft Teams with the TPAD Master Trainers on Thursday, 9th September 2021 from 10.00am,” reads the circular.

The TPAD Masters should use this link https://tinyurl.com/Preparation-Meeting-TPAD to log into the meeting on the aforementioned date and time.

In order to effectively deliver the virtual training, the county directors are required to send a list of the 107 teachers to [email protected] by4.00pm, Friday, 3rd September 2021, with the subject TPAD Teacher Training for NAME OF COUNTY.

The list must ensure gender parity, representation from primary, secondary and special schools.

The recently signed deal between KNUT and the teachers service commission has unlocked the teacher professional development courses. Since the deal is effective 30^th June 2021, teacher professional development courses have been slated to begin soon.

TSC now has the opportunity to roll out the training programme and implement career progression guidelines, performance contracting which were the breaking point between it and the union. The programme, though in the TPAD, could not be rolled since it was under the career progression guidelines, which KNUT, under its former SG Sossion strongly opposed in favour of the schemes of service. KUPPET and KUSNET however had accepted to work under the career progression guidelines and were eagerly waiting for their members to begin attending the courses.

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Kenyatta University, Riara University, Mount Kenya University, and the Kenya Education Management Institute (Kemi) were picked by TSC to train the teachers.

The consent means that the TSC is now at liberty to sign a contract with these training institutions to offer the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) programme which had been opposed by Knut under Wilson Sossion.

By the end of this year, teachers might begin attending the teacher professional development courses in any of the institutions that have been chosen by TSC. The objective of these courses will be to fill the competency gaps identified by the teacher during setting of targets in the TPAD. No teacher will be spared since for each competency area, there is no option of being fully competent. Teachers will be expected to pursue at least one of the courses, which will be school based and residential, after every five years to have their licenses renewed.

A report submitted to the teachers’ service commission, TSC, has recommended a severe punishment for teachers who did not submit their TPAD reports. Also to be punished are teachers who consistently score low on TPAD ratings without any improvement in subsequent terms.

According to a report submitted to the TSC CEO, only completed TPADS could be submitted successfully and majority of teachers did not complete filling their TPADS. “Teachers had all the time to complete their term two appraisal but some still got closed out,” Reads the report on TPAD evaluation for term two.

The report has also revealed that most teachers do not upload evidence while appraising themselves. “Each standard in the TPAD requires evidence yet teachers just give their ratings and fail to upload evidence. What that means is that the ratings are lies.”

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TSC credits TPAD as the most effective and professional evaluation tool for teachers. Teachers on the other hand view the document as a punitive tool, designed to humiliate them and deny them promotions from lower job groups when they are due.

For any teacher attending a promotional TSC interview, TPAD ratings are a mandatory requirement. According to the TPAD’s Preamble, any teacher who consistently displays poor performance or very low appraisal ratings may after due process have his or her services terminated. Additionally, it states that a disciplinary action should be taken against any teacher who fails or refuses to complete or submit an appraisal report.

Originally, TPAD tool involved both manual and online processes and there were no strict timelines for data entry. Teachers would fill and submit the data even during the holidays after closure of schools.

The new TPAD tool requires weekly lesson attendance entries not later than Fridays of each week. After Friday, the non-submitted lesson attendance data expires and the online system rejects it automatically.

Non submitted data simply gives an interpretation that the teacher did not attend the lessons for the week and therefore attracts a disciplinary action from TSC. The disciplinary actions TSC has talked of so far include salary stoppage for the month or salary deductions.

The TPAD also requires teachers to have at least one lesson observation per term.

The teacher’s service commission, TSC, is planning to establish a school that will train all registered teachers on matters classroom management, effective teaching approaches and professionalism.

As per the education stake holders meeting that was hosted by TSC at KICD ON 13^TH November 2020, the plans to establish an institute of teacher support and professional management are almost complete.

In a way, every time teachers will have filled TPAD documents, gaps would be identified which only the TSC institute of teacher support and professional management will address. There is very high likelihood that Teachers will be enrolled in the school, based on the gaps identified in their TPADs.  This is akin to TPD and career progression guidelines, which the teachers service commission has been advocating for, and which are part of the 2016 collective bargaining agreement, CBA.

Teachers union KNUT is however opposed to CPG, and is strongly advocating for the schemes of service (SOS).

The TSC plan of establishing the post training institution may however fail. This is owing to a ruling by Justice Byram Ong’aya in petition case no. 151 of 2018. In this appeal case, TSC had petitioned KNUT in court, with the ministry of labour as an interested party and KNUT as the respondent. (CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RULING.)

Revoked CPG Circular

What the teachers’ service commission, TSC wanted was for the revoked circular of 2^nd may 2018, which was about career progression guidelines, to be recalled and made legal. The court however declined to grant the teachers service commission an appeal to that case.

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This simply implied that the earlier ruling by Justice Ong’aya still stands. Part of the ruling reads:

iii. There shall be stay of implementation of Career Progression Guidelines being circular No. 7 of 2018 being Ref. No. TSC/ADM/192A/VOL.IX/37 of 02.05.2018 and pending agreement in that regard and enactment.

1. Promotional decisions to be made as per the collective agreement and the prevailing regulations or such other regulations that may be promulgated as per section 35 (2) of the Teachers Service Commission Act, 2012 on career progression and professional development programmes as may be prescribed by regulations.
2. As teacher professional development programme has not yet been implemented, parties to engage as per the clause 12 of the collective agreement towards appropriate Teachers Professional Development (TPD) Modules and policy.

Funding For the Courses

As per whether teachers will pay for the courses or not, the ruling is still very clear about funding of TPD programmes.

“Accordingly, the Court returns once again that a statutory provision expressly permitting the petitioner to deduct out of teachers’ salaries towards partially or fully funding of TPD programmes as may be necessary or appropriate would be mandatory in that regard. Under section 25 of the Act, it amounts to a criminal offence to deduct salaries except as provided in Part IV of the Act” reads part of the rulling.

Teacher Promotions

Promotions will be determined  by the schemes of service, following provisions of the cord of regulations for teachers, CORT.

” The petitioner will undertake teacher promotions in accordance with the relevant provisions of the CORT and the schemes of service with respect to all unionisable teachers eligible to join the respondent trade union; and parties may within the CBA and recognition agreement consider reviewing the prevailing schemes of service with a view of bringing them into alignment with the prevailing CBA pay structure and related matters as will be necessary and without derogating from the provisions of the CORT on teacher promotion – as the policy circular of 02.05.2018 on Career Progression Guidelines and purporting to abolish and replace the prevailing three schemes of service will not apply accordingly.”

According to the ruling, career progression guidelines are illegal and therefore cannot replace the schemes of service, unless the two parties meet and come to an agreement.

TPD shall Not Be Implemented

“The Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules in dispute shall not be implemented as they fall short of professional development programmes as may be prescribed by the petitioner by regulation and pursuant to section 35 (2) (a) of the Teachers Service Commission Act, 2012; and in prescribing the career progression and professional development programmes by way of regulation under section 35(2) (a) of the Act, the petitioner shall comply with the provisions of the  Statutory Instruments Act, 2013.”

Following the 2018 ruling by justice Ong’aya therefore, analysts argue that TPD,CPG and TPAD are all illegal.

Click here to download the ruling.

Nzomo took the oath of office in 2014 as the first person to chair the TSC, immediately after it was made a constitutional commission. TSC was constituted fully in March 2015, following the appointment of the chairperson and commissioners and their recruitment to serve.

Before becoming the TSC chairperson, Nzomo worked with the TSC in various capacities, including serving as acting TSC CEO. She also served as a council member of various agencies; Jomo Kenyatta Foundation, the Kenya Institute of Special Education, Kenya Education Management Institute, Kenya National Examinations Council, School Equipment Production Unit and Kenya Methodist University.

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With the end of her six year tenure, Nzomo has given a report on her exit to the TSC. In the report, she has stressed on resource mobilization, staffing, integrity, professionalism and strengthening research as the most critical areas that the commission should focus on.

Nzomo will take credit for the following pivotal achievements in the commission as she retires towards the end of November.

• She spearheaded the introduction of Career Progression Guidelines, CPG, for teachers that were launched in November 2017, to replaced the schemes of service (SOS).
• During her tenure,TSC rolled out performance contracting for institutional heads and the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) tools for teachers.
• Nzomo was party to the signing and implementation of the first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the teachers’ unions. This resulted to an end of continuous industrial actions and teacher strikes that would seriously paralyze teaching and learning in public schools in the past.
• Her reign saw TSC implying very strong-arm tactics in dealing with ‘troublesome’ stakeholders like the Kenya National Union of Teachers, KNUT.
• She was at the fore front in rolling out the teachers’ medical cover, AON Minet.
• During Nzomo’s tenure, the delocalization programme was enhanced, as a way of promoting national integrity. This saw various heads delocalized to schools in other counties. Most newly recruited primary school teachers were also affected.

What more do you remember Nzomo for? Kindly put it in the comment box below.