Teachers should be allowed to rise through the career ladder without being forced into administrative roles, Teachers Service Commission nominee Antonina Lentoijoni has said.
Speaking during her parliamentary vetting on Thursday, August 20, Lentoijoni said the existing career progression framework had contributed to stagnation among teachers, particularly those who want to advance while remaining in classroom teaching.
“All teachers were promoted in 2017. We have stagnated for nine years, yes, but the biggest challenge is the Career Progression Guidelines 2018 because if they have to move up, one has to change to be an administrator when they reach a certain grade,” she said.
According to Lentoijoni, the 2018 Career Progression Guidelines present a challenge for teachers seeking to move to higher grades, adding that there should be two career pathways to allow those who excel in classroom teaching to progress without having to become administrators.
“What we are doing is that the new Career Progression Guidelines are flexible has two pathways. Teachers who are good in class can move all the way to chief principal without going through administrators, but if they want to be administrators, they can still do that,” she said.
Another reform to ease promotion she proposes is the automation of the recruitment process, which she says would enable teachers and the commission to track applications and identify areas where teachers have stagnated.
According to her, an end-to-end system would show who had been promoted, when the promotion occurred, the grade attained and how many teachers remained stuck at particular levels.
“When we reach that point, we can take an audit so that we identify where the gaps are. That way we would have reformed where the challenges and gaps are,” she said, adding that promotions beyond entry grades remain dependent on available funding.
Teacher shortage
On the teacher shortage, Lentoijoni says the shortage was more pronounced in junior secondary schools, as the transition from the former 8-4-4 system to the Competency-Based Curriculum had affected opportunities for primary school teachers.
According to her, the transition reduced the number of primary school classes, leaving the system with teachers who had previously been required to cater for more classes.
“The six classes still had teachers meant for eight classes, and that is where the loss of opportunity for primary school teachers came from. We had more teachers than expected,” she said.
She says recruitment by the commission currently focuses on replacing teachers leaving the service and addressing shortages in areas where the need was greatest, particularly junior secondary schools.
The nominee proposed that TSC engage Parliament for increased funding to enable the recruitment of more teachers. She added that the commission was also transferring qualified primary school teachers to junior secondary schools to create room for new recruitment in primary schools.
Pension claims
On pension claims, Lentoijoni proposed reforms to the processing of teachers' pension claims, citing cases where physical files belonging to retirees are misplaced as they move between different TSC directorates.
She said TSC has 10 directorates, creating challenges when physical files have to move from one office to another, particularly when pension officials need documents held by another directorate.
She attributed some of the problem to the integrity of officers and called for stronger systems to protect teachers from such failures.
“The TSC needs to strengthen the system processes to ensure systems themselves protect teachers. We need to automate the pension process, so that from end to end, the teachers can track the process of their pension,” she said, adding that teachers would also need to be equipped to use the systems as the commission moves away from reliance on physical files.
With more than 26 years in the education sector, the commissioner nominee said she understood the distinction between management and the role of a commissioner.
She says if appointed, she would transition into the commission with a clear understanding of the responsibilities attached to the position and the boundaries between governance and management.
Lentoijoni declared a net worth of Sh38 million during the vetting.
