Controversial SRC evaluation of teachers finally gets underway

Academic qualifications and experience are among the parameters that will guide a job evaluation of the teaching profession.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) got down to work on the contested job evaluation recommended by the salaries agency that will also inform remuneration for the over 280,000 teachers.

It is projected that the exercise will be completed by June this year.

Meru County Examinations Officer Alex Ndereba (right) addresses Consolata Girls Secondary School students after they spent Sunday night outside Meru Police Station. They accused their principal of being high-handed. They also protested over poor facilities at the institution. (PHOTO: PETER MUTHOMI/STANDARD)

The PwC team on Monday met 47 Teachers Service Commission (TSC) county directors to brief them before they move to schools across the country.

It emerged PwC has been holding planning meetings with teams from TSC and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), which contracted them last April.

A sample evaluation tool seen by The Standard shows the teaching job will be evaluated on a number of parameters including teachers’ main responsibilities, how they influence policy and strategy, their financial impact and the place of effective communication in the job.

Risks involved

The teachers’ experience at work, qualifications, knowledge and skills required, risks involved and the work environment will also be evaluated in determining the relative worth of the teaching service.

Under the work conditions, PwC will analyse teachers’ job surroundings, taking into account any risks and hazards that are encountered in the ordinary course of duty.

“This sub-factor of job conditions assesses physical conditions and the environment under which the job must be carried out and the extent to which these and the necessity to travel are part of the requirement of the job,” reads the SRC evaluation tool.

On qualifications, knowledge and skills, the minimum academic qualifications, the minimum cumulative number of years of experience, the minimum professional qualifications required and the technical competencies required for the job will be evaluated.

And on experience and training, the teaching service will be evaluated on the number of months or years on the job that the staff requires to become 80 per cent effective in their role.

The extent to which teachers influence people (other than subordinates), the specific issues that the teachers have influence over and the impact of such issues to the citizens shall be evaluated under the general influence of the teachers.

The level of communication skills required by the teachers to carry out their mandate shall also be assessed during the process.

The brief from SRC indicates that PwC activities include training and certification of evaluators on the evaluation tools to be used during the exercise.

The firm has already held a sensitisation meeting with all the 47 TSC county directors ahead of the national roll-out of the exercise.

A letter by SRC chairperson Sarah Serem to TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia makes reference to the Monday meeting that was also attended by all the sub-county directors.

sensitisation meeting

“As you are aware, a task force constituting staff from TSC, SRC and PwC have been meeting to plan the job evaluation activities for the teachers. SRC has organised a one-day sensitisation workshop on job evaluation for the teaching service scheduled for Monday 8, 2016,” reads the Serem letter in part. The roll-out schedule shows PwC will now conduct county visits for the service to fill the job analysis questionnaires for the purpose of developing job descriptions for the various levels in the teaching service.

The two teachers’ unions have opposed the job evaluation process, terming it unnecessary. “We know it is a way of checking the wage bill but they also want to frustrate the promotion of teachers,” said Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General Wilson Sossion.