The Teachers Service Commission has issued a notice requiring teachers to complete their second term appraisal ratings and submit them ahead of school closing. County, sub-county, and zonal Commission’s officials are under pressure to see to it that the TPAD ratings for term two are submitted on time.
HOIs should ensure that all teachers on duty comply 100%. The appraisal follows a well-structured hierarchy as follows: County Directors appraise the Sub-county Directors, who in turn appraise the Curriculum Support Officer. The CSO appraises the school headteacher or principal, while the deputy headteacher appraises teachers and, in turn, is appraised by the headteacher.
Schools are to shut down by next Friday. Secondary schools have already released learners for the three-week holiday. Most primary schools will close Wednesday and Thursday next week. TSC plans to close the TPAD portal immediately after schools close.
TSC had planned that tutors were to provide evidence for their appraisal ratings botched in the previous term. Evidence to be provided includes Schemes of Work, Lesson Plans, Attendance Registers, Lesson Notes, Progress Records, and Learners’ Work, all approved by headteachers and their deputies. The Commission is working on its servers to enable mass uploading of resources, hence making it mandatory for teachers to provide evidence for termly appraisals.
Whereas the TPAD calendar is mandatory in terms of provision of evidence, many teachers bypass this process. However, the Commission intends to keenly monitor teacher performance, more so in the Competency-Based Curriculum.
In December and January, in teacher promotion interviews, TSC awarded scores depending on TPAD ratings. For example, teachers scoring 81% and above earned ten marks while those with 61% to 80% got eight marks. TSC also released a guideline for schools whose DHOI had issues with lesson observation and appraising teachers.
To address missing DHOI rights in TPAD, HOIs should:
- Log in to the TMIS system.
- Go to the teachers’ details page.
- Update the current deputy data from teacher to deputy.
- Indicate the date of the current responsibility.
- Save the changes.
TPAD is a system that offers primary and secondary school teachers an opportunity to reflect on their practice as well as trigger professional development. Through the system, TSC envisions that the lost glory of the profession together with public confidence is going to be restored.
This implies that any teacher seeking promotion must comply with TPAD. Any teacher going for a promotion interview ought to download and provide evidence of compliance with TPAD. Further, non-compliance with appraisal and lesson observations may attract disciplinary action.
TPAD Calendar of Activities at the Institution Level
| TPAD Activity | Action By | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Planning meetings before school opening involving all staff to set school TPAD Activity calendar | Heads of Institutions, Senior Management Team, Teachers | By the last week of the school holiday |
| Submission of professional documents | Heads of institution, All Teachers | By the end of the first week of the term |
| Undertaking lesson observations and identifying and documenting teacher’s professional gaps | Appraisees and appraisers | Between 2nd week and 10th week of the term |
| Undertaking teacher professional development to address professional gaps | Appraisees, appraisers, institutional administrators | Throughout the term; from 1st week to the last week of the term |
| Internal Monitoring and Evaluation of the implementation of TPAD process | Heads of institution, Deputy Head of Institution, Heads of Department | Continuous throughout the term |
| Monitoring the implementation of TPAD process at county level; zonal, sub-county & county | Curriculum Support Officers, Sub-county Directors, and County Directors | Throughout the term; from 1st week to the last week of the term |
| TPAD rating meetings | Appraisee (teachers) and appraiser (HODs, deputy heads, Heads of Institution, CSOs, SCD) | By the closing date of the term |
| Uploading of TPAD data and evidence | Appraisee (teachers) and appraiser (HODs, deputy heads, Heads of Institution, CSOs, SCD) |