Teachers now reject job appraisals
Primary schools heads from Nyeri County at the launch of teachers’ performance contracting by the TSC at St Marys Boys High in Nyeri on January 12, 2016. TSC and teachers' union have agreed on a technical team to work out a new CBA. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
The appraisals targets about 298,000 teachers countrywide and, according to the TSC, is aimed at improving the quality of education in public schools.
Teachers will not take part in an exercise to evaluate their performance as proposed by their employer, their union said on Tuesday.
The performance appraisal was against the Constitution and the Teachers Service Commission Act, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion said yesterday.
“What is being introduced fundamentally alters the negotiated and agreed terms and conditions of service under which the teachers were first employed,” he said and asked the union’s 110 branch executive secretaries to ensure no teacher took part in the exercise pending further directions from the union.
“While we are not opposed to such management tools geared towards improvement of education, the manner in which they are being sneaked in with impunity means that the TSC absolutely intends to use such tools punitively and to the disadvantage of the teachers and education in the long run,” Mr Sossion said in a statement.
PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS
The appraisals targets about 298,000 teachers countrywide and, according to the TSC, is aimed at improving the quality of education in public schools.
The more than 30,000 school heads, 23,000 in primary and 7,000 in post-primary institutions will be made to sign performance contracts while ordinary teachers would be subjected to annual performance appraisals.
TSC would then use the appraisal findings to assign, train, promote and deploy teachers to various administrative positions.
Teachers will be assessed on how they prepare schemes of work and whether or not they follow the syllabus. They will also be appraised on professional knowledge and its application, time management, innovation and creativity in teaching.
School heads will on the other hand be tested on their strategic development plans, leadership and management skills.
Other indicators are learner protection and safety, teacher discipline and conduct, promotion of co-curricular activities, professional development and collaboration with parents and other stakeholders.
Tuesday, TSC spokesperson Kihumba Kamotho said the commission had started an awareness campaign to prepare the teachers for the evaluation in February. He warned that teachers who refused to be evaluated risked disciplinary action including dismissal.
Mr Sossion said the evaluation would further demoralise teachers who were already unhappy with poor terms of service.
“You cannot evaluate a teacher using such tools. It will be disastrous to teachers and will affect education,” he said.
National Assembly Education Committee chairperson Sabina Chege asked the commission and the unions to find a away of ending the stalemate amicably, saying that it could hurt the quality of learning in schools.
