Teachers’ Unions call for review of the following promotions guidelines
Teachers’ Unions call for review of the following promotions guidelines. To prevent situations where teachers remain in the same job group for an extended period of time, the Teacher Unions have demanded that the Teacher Service Commission’s (TSC) Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) be reviewed.
Collins Oyuu, secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), claims that CPG has brought about too much stagnation and that it would need to be addressed during the renegotiations for the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“The promotion process was automatic when we established the Scheme of Service. However, the CPG has resulted in teachers’ stagnation. Your wage improvement is fairly limited if you are not an administrator, deputy head, or perhaps a head teacher,” he noted.
The Salary and Remuneration Commission (SRC) job evaluations, which showed that heads and deputies carried heavy responsibilities and, as a result, saw their salaries rise while classroom instructors were neglected, served as the basis for the 2017–2021 CBA.
The current CPG contains flaws, according to KNUT Deputy Secretary General Hesbon Otieno, because it was created using the 2017–2021 CBA. Otieno points out that the CPG’s design mainly helps a small number of teacher cadres, the majority of whom hold administrative posts.
Otieno remarked, “We might not go back to the Scheme of Service, but we can evaluate the CPG to make sure it is in line with all areas of teacher advancement and growth.
The CPG has caused more harm than benefit in the teaching profession, according to Moffats Okisai, the executive secretary of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Busia, because it has led to career stagnation.
He points out that the job group cadre calibration strategy has damaged the working spirit and morale of teachers.
“If the status quo is upheld, it will take a classroom teacher forty years of dedication to advance to the position of Chief Principal. This suggests that everyone will have left the workforce before the peak, according to Okisai, who also noted that the CPG has to be evaluated, examined, and amended.
Imagine having to advance from Senior Teacher I through III to Deputy Principal I through III, Principal, Senior Principal, and Chief Principal. You cannot pretend to act in a specific administrative role and anticipate automatic confirmation given the lengthy delay, he continued.
In order to establish a data bank of school administrators, reassure instructors of their advancement, and further emphasize better qualifications, Okisai suggested that TSC conduct interviews quarterly.
“In the past, teachers would advance through the ranks from assistant teachers to department leaders to deputy principals to principals. Additionally, some occupational categories were thought of as common cadres. The initiative for quick outcomes was also being supported.
After every three years of employment in a particular occupational category, a teacher’s advancement was guaranteed. In contrast to the present structure, which has been tainted by confusion, this was a better arrangement, he remarked.
The Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) for the teaching service were first introduced by TSC in Circular Number 7/2018, dated May 2, 2018, and went into effect on November 8, 2017. For non-graduate and graduate teachers, graduate teachers, technical teachers, and lecturers, the rules replaced the Scheme of Service.
Currently, the CPG is applicable to instructors working in public institutions, including special needs schools, teacher training colleges (TTCs), the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE), and the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) (SNEs).
To be promoted from one grade to the next, a teacher must work in that grade for at least three years, and funding vacancies in the approved establishment, minimum qualification standards for each grade, relevant Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules, relevant experience, and satisfactory performance are also requirements.
On December 13, 2022, TSC Secretary and CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia testified before the Departmental Committee on Education of the National Assembly that all teachers had received promotions in 2017, which had cost the government Ksh54 billion, and that it was untrue that some teachers had remained in the same grade for as long as ten years as had been claimed.
Dr. Macharia maintained that a teacher must only have held the same grade for a short period of time.