The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is changing tack from interdicting tutors to mentoring and coaching bad apples in the profession, probably warning that cases of indiscipline are going up.
TSC, the teachers employer in Kenya, has asked school principals to be the “senior coaches or mentors”, putting interdiction on the back burner as the State agency says sending tutors away would be a last resort.
Headed by Nancy Macharia as chief executive officer and Jamleck Muturi as chairman, the agency has released its county directors to pass the message to the headteachers, who are complaining this will complicate their work-life balance more.
In certain counties, headteachers have asked why they were being asked to take up more work without pay while they were already grappling with administrative work and teaching as the number of students increase under the 100percent transition from primary schools.
“Head-teachers have been asked to handle mediation, mentorship, conflict resolution among teachers since TSC says cases of undisciplined teachers were rising,” one teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity, told A Plain.
“According to the TSC, interdiction should not be the solution,” our source said, adding some head-teachers have openly complained that the coaching will be a lot of work.
Deputy heads and senior teachers will also be recruited by the principals to help in returning the problem tutors to the rails.
Embezzlement of funds, chronic absenteeism, sexual relationships with students, staying away from work without permission or due to alcoholism and openly defying bosses are some of the cases leading to interdiction.
Teachers are addicted either by the board or the TSC. “The TSC interdicts directly when a teacher has been transferred and is yet to report to the new station; when a board is not properly constituted and the principal, the BOM secretary, is also interdicted by the Commission,” one educationist said.
“We recognise that some of our teachers are/have fallen victims to alcoholism, leading to, among other issues, absence from work,” the Commission said in its November 2021 monthly publication Mwalimu News.
Teachers admitted to rehabilitation centres on alcoholism challenges through the TSC’s wellness programme take leave to complete a 90-day therapy.
Asked whether the government was training and paying for these skills, our source said these were lumped under “self-development” programmes that also cover the controversial teacher performance appraisal and development (TPAD) for which teachers pay Sh6,000 annually.
Interdicted tutors are put on 50percentsalary until they serve the sentence. School boards and the TSC “are careful to interdict teachers because there are financial implications should the interdicted teacher win the case”, a senior principal said.
Principals, however, say mentoring has been the practice “although it is not written anywhere. For a principal to interdict, he/she must have tried various approaches to remedy the situation without success”.
The head-teachers warn that because interdiction is such an elaborate process, resorting to “more coaching” was likely to encourage more dereliction when an errant teacher “knows he will be mentored instead of being shown the door”.
Those that are eventually removed from TSC roll for misconduct are not allowed to teach again in public or private institutions.
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