The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has finally settled the debate on which teachers will attend to learners who will join junior secondary schools at Grade 7, 8 and 9.
The Commission had initially raised hope for thousands of primary school teachers with various higher academic qualifications but have failed to secure promotions after coming of the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG).
These are primary school teachers with the following qualifications;
1) Diploma and Degree in Special Needs Education
2) Diploma and Degree in Early Childhood Development Education
3) Diploma in Education (Primary option)
4) Diploma in Education (Secondary option)
5) Degree in Education (Secondary option) but lacking C+ at KCSE or C+ in teaching subjects
In a report titled Status Report on Teacher Preparedness for Competence Based Curriculum Implementation which was presented before the Parliamentary Committee on Education, TSC had said that it will deploy P1 teachers who hold
1. Diplomas,
2. Higher Diplomas,
3. under-graduate Degrees,
4. Post-graduate Diplomas,
5. Masters and PHDs to teach at junior secondary schools (JSS).
TSC was hard pressed to issue its report on status of preparedness ahead of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) transition classes and the looming double intake in 2023.
Currently TSC only deploys primary school teachers with Bachelors in Education (Secondary option) to teach in secondary schools.
The deployed teachers must also have at least C+ at KCSE and at least C+ in the teaching subjects.
TSC deployment policy has led to an outcry after locking out thousands of primary school teachers who attended higher institutions of learning but their certificates rendered useless.
A good example are teachers who joined universities with C (plain) mean grade at KCSE to study Bachelors in Education (Secondary option) but are now not eligible for deployment.
The Commission is beating an about turn and now galvanizing on high school teachers ahead of the roll out of the junior secondary classes.
TSC says training of primary school teachers who will handle Grade Six pupils will be done in December 2021.
The Commission made the revelations at Hilton Hotel in Nairobi last week, September 14 during Education ministry’s top officials’ meeting with the Kenya Editors Guild.
However TSC said only high school teachers will be trained to handle Grade 7, 8 and 9 which are the junior secondary classes.
TSC said at least 60,000 high school teachers will, in March and April next year, be trained in preparation for the rollout of junior secondary.
The Ministry of Education is currently working to upgrade select primary schools to junior secondary schools.
Primary schools with established infrastructure that can host a junior secondary school (JSS) wing will be upgraded.
Those that are under-enrolled and in close proximity will be merged and the infrastructure of one of them improved.
Some schools will have both primary and junior secondary hosted in the same compound.
Junior secondary school will comprise of Grades 7, 8 and 9. In 2023, pioneer learners under the new 2-6-3-3-3 Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) system will transition to junior secondary school after sitting the Grade Six national examinations.
The Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) said syllabus designs from Grade One to Ten are ready.
The Education ministry further said that the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) will, from September 27 to October 1, roll out the pilot summative assessment for Grade Six pupils in selected primary schools.
This, the ministry says, will enable the exams body to generate a sample paper for the final assessment.
KNEC will use the current Grade 5 learners to pilot summative assessment for Grade Six.
The pilot test will also allow KNEC to establish suitability of the assessment tools, the exams’ difficulty levels, language appropriateness, adequacy of the duration of the exam and the reporting format.
