The Teachers Service Commission has directed school heads to send in details of teachers transferred or posted to their schools with immediate effect. This move is aimed at improving service delivery and ensuring timely adjustments of allowances for teachers.
While addressing the same, Commission Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Nancy Macharia hit on this directive in Mombasa while attending an annual conference of principals in Mombasa. She urged school principals to ensure data capture on any posted teacher through an entry or exit portal for the processing and payment of various allowances, such as housing, municipal, hardship, among others.
It is through this that Dr. Macharia also called for a prompt report in case of a teacher leaving the teaching service to avoid cases of double payment. This is when the transfer is not reported in the exit-entry module and data is not updated in the Teachers Management Information System, hence denying service to the tutor.
“If you fail to report a teacher’s movement through the exit-entry module and update him in the ‘Teachers Management Information System’ (TIMS) data, then you are denying service to that tutor,” said Dr. Macharia.
The TSC is responsible for the process of transferring teachers in Kenya. Teachers seeking transfer make an application for the same on a prescribed form upon filling to the head of the institution. One can obtain these forms at TSC offices countrywide or download them from the TSC website. The application forms are forwarded to the TSC, or the agent, through the head of the institution when filled.
Transfer requests are promptly acknowledged once submitted. Such applications are considered by the Appointment Board, which then informs the teacher about its decision. The process of transfers is based on the availability of vacancies as well as replacement needs; hence it consumes several months.
The TSC county director is mandated with the transfer of primary school teachers within a county. Therefore, the TSC headquarters reserves transfers for teachers outside the county and those for tertiary education institutions. This therefore institutionalizes the structured process of teacher transfers at various levels of education.
Dr. Macharia further challenged school principals to be prepared to receive the first lot of learners under the Competency-Based Curriculum. She urged for sufficient preparations to accommodate the students’ absorption. The TSC is getting some guidelines in the form of circulars, which will help tutors to fully prepare and accommodate students under the CBC curriculum.