TSC sends teams to monitor progress in schools as unions remain adamant

Teachers in Nakuru County protest to demand for better pay from the Government. [Photo:Boniface Thuku/Standard]

Senior education officials will today be deployed to monitor schools as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) maintained the ongoing teachers strike is illegal.

A circular released Sunday said a team from TSC, Education ministry and other senior officials will visit schools to assess learning and that “teachers will be expected to be in school with updated professional records”.

The commission maintained the strike was illegal since the procedure set out under Labour Relations Act 2007 on the tenets of calling for an industrial action was not duly followed.

TSC has now directed head teachers to submit to its county directors details of teachers who failed to report for duty.

“Head teachers and principals who fail to comply with the instructions laid out and Regulation 28(8) of the Code of Regulations for Teachers will face disciplinary action. This will be in addition to deployment from administrative position,” read part of the circular.

Ensure order

TSC also wants all teachers in substantive or acting administrative positions that include principals, deputy principals, head teachers, deputy head teachers, heads of department, registrars, deans and senior teachers to be on duty at all times to ensure order, safety of learners and preservation of school property.

The circular has also directed the TSC county directors to submit a list of institutions and the particulars of the head teachers and principals of schools where learning had not started by last Friday for appropriate action.

According to the teachers’ employer, learning and teaching programmes should be conducted irrespective of the number of learners while heads of institutions are required to ensure professional records are updated as required.

The commission has also directed that daily attendance records of learners and teachers should be forwarded to the TSC county directors who have been directed to take action as per the Code of Regulations for Teachers.

The records should comprise teachers’ attendance registers personally signed by individual teachers in the morning and evening and must be submitted daily to the TSC county directors by heads of institutions.

The commission warned there would be dire consequences for teachers who fail to report for duty and abide by the directives as set out in the circular.

However, Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori castigated TSC for threatening and intimidating teachers through circulars yet they are supposed to create room for an amicable solution to the salary stalemate.

Mr Misori said TSC had no capacity to issue threats on the strike since they did not call for the withdrawal of labour.

“The attempt by TSC to give threats is an affront to the rights of teachers. TSC has no right or capacity to tell teachers to go back to work. It is the union which called the strike and the strike is still on,” said Misori.

Misori also dismissed TSC warnings to teachers as empty threats, saying the Code of Regulations that the teachers’ employer is relying on does not impact on the workers who have a right to withdraw labour according to Labour Relations Act of 2007.

Inflammatory statements

He said TSC should desist from making inflammatory statements and intimidating teachers who are only asking for better terms and conditions of service.

“We have faulted the TSC directive because it is belated, unconstitutional and the reference to the code of conduct is just a diversionary tactic to deny the teachers the right to better remuneration,” he said.

The union said that it will attend the Wednesday status talks ordered by the Industrial Court last Friday, but insisted for any negotiations to bear fruit, the basic salary component must be included in the deal.

The union also wants private schools to join them in withdrawal of labour and paralyse learning across the country.

According to Misori, the withdrawal should be done because few parents who have the means, including children of the top Ministry of Education officials, take their children to private schools.