TSC Deployment 2023/2024 Commission Terminates Headteachers’ Contract in JSS

TSC News Today: Primary school headteachers who were temporarily assigned to serve as Principals of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) will not have their contracts renewed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for the 2023/2024 cycle, following a recommendation by the Presidential working party that will see both primary schools and JSS conjoined into a complex.  This comes as a relief for thousands of degree holders who were recently posted to teach in primary school.

Preliminary details indicate that the newly recruited graduate teachers are facing a myriad of challenges including being accused of a superiority complex by their counterparts in the primary section. Some of them are being forced to teach the lower classes yet they lack adequate expertise to deliver effectively.

This year, TSC dispatched deployment letters to primary school heads to serve as heads of JSS thus signifying the start of their one-year contract, which lasts until December 30, 2023.

However, after a report from the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), which was presented by President William Ruto at the State House last week, fresh modifications have been made.

The recommendations, which will be put into effect in a year, will combine the nursery, primary school, and junior high school into one entity.

The single organisation that includes all three levels will be referred to as the Comprehensive School and will be led by a principal.

The teachers in charge of the nursery, primary, and junior schools will support the principal and be referred to as deputy principals.

The principal and his deputies must be qualified educators with a bachelor’s degree or higher in education.

The majority of primary school heads at the moment are P1 teachers without a degree, while several also hold diplomas.

TSC did not consider the headteacher’s credentials when promoting them; instead, if they had a student in Grade 7 enrolled at the school, they were given a letter of deployment to JSS.

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According to the existing regulations, the interim leadership of the headteachers over the JSS expires on December 30, 2023.

In Kenya, there are more than 23,000 public elementary schools, the majority of which have received Ministry of Education approval to host JSS.

Senior teachers who will report to the Principal must adhere to rules that TSC and the government must develop.

Current headteachers who do not meet the requirements to lead comprehensive schools will be demoted and probably given smaller responsibilities. They will so lose control over the finances and operations of the institution.

Due to the commission’s inability to draw candidates for the administration positions, some schools have been functioning without permanent leaders.

The accounting officer for all the sections that fall under the comprehensive school will be its head.

The make-up of the school Board of Management (BOM) is also subject to change.

Currently, a temporary subcommittee made up of members of the BoM for elementary schools oversees the JSS.

Additionally, the PWPER suggests limiting the number of BoM members to nine or ten. The present boards, it claims, are bloated.

In a different plan, the comprehensive and senior secondary school heads would serve as representatives of the Ministry of Education rather than the TSC.