Teachers face performance contracts

Teachers could soon have their performance measured after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) published regulations to guide how appraisals will be carried out.

The regulations are now before the National Assembly, awaiting to be debated by MPs.

The regulations have been handed over to the Committee on Delegated Legislation, which can either delete particular sections or reject the entire document altogether. However, it cannot introduce new clauses.

The regulations, if adopted, will ensure rewards for teachers who complete the syllabus on time and those who keep records of their work. On the other hand, those found lacking risk being sacked.

However, the rules are likely to lead to a confrontation between the TSC and teachers’ unions, which have opposed performance contracts for their members.

DIFFICULT TO MEASURE

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have in the past said it is difficult to measure a teacher's performance and feared that these could be used to victimise teachers.

On Monday, Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion declined to comment on the proposed rules, saying he had not seen them.

“Once Parliament is done with them, we will give our position,” he said.

On the other hand, Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori said some aspects of the appraisal need more discussion.

“We are not afraid of appraisals for teachers but (they) should be all-inclusive,” Mr Misori said.

He said it is normal for civil servants to be subjected to appraisals and teachers were not exempted.

If the proposed system is implemented, school heads will be required to submit records to the TSC’s quality assurance and standards officers every year, showing how each teacher in their schools had performed. The commission will determine the intervals at which the appraisals will be conducted.

The "Code of Conduct and Ethics for Teachers Regulations" say that the TSC will use the appraisals to determine promotion, deployment and other rewards.

“Any teacher who consistently displays poor performance or adverse appraisal ratings may, after due process, have his services terminated,” the regulations stipulate.

DISCIPLINARY ACTION

The commission will take disciplinary action against a teacher who fails to complete and submit an appraisal report to the supervisor or refuses or neglects to discuss or sign the appraisal report with the supervisor.

The TSC will also have quality assurance and standards officers at the county and sub-county level who will have powers to enter any educational institution to ensure performance standards are complied with.

They will also have the power to summon and interview teachers and any other person to provide information relating to assessment.

“The officers will carry out performance assessment and discuss the findings with the teacher concerned for purposes of corrective action and continuous improvement,” state the regulations.

There will also be curriculum support centres at the zonal or any other level within the sub-county with curriculum support officers, who will identify the training needs of teachers and heads of institutions and advise the TSC accordingly.

However, the setting up of quality assurance offices could escalate the tug of war between the TSC and the Ministry of Education, which has in the past opposed such attempts.

The Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) last year added its voice to the issue by advising that the TSC lacked the mandate in quality assurance and management of schools. The CIC gave the opinion at the request of the ministry.

The advisory, signed by CIC vice-chairman Elizabeth Muli and copied to Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi and the TSC among others, said the commission cannot be involved in quality assurance.

“TSC may only check a teacher’s quality status as part of its research to inform what needs to be done to improve a teachers’ standards through training and to inform what they need to put as requirements for one to qualify to be registered as a teacher,” she said.