TSC creates position of senior masters in schools

Senior masters will be appointed to supervise curriculum implementation in post-primary schools. [File, Standard]

A new administrative position has been created in all post-primary public schools.

A senior master/mistress will be responsible for supervision of curriculum implementation within a department in secondary and middle-level colleges.

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said the commission is in the process of appointing teachers to this position across all post-primary schools.

In a circular to all the TSC county directors, Ms Macharia instructs the county senior staff to supervise the identification of the senior master/mistress for every institution under their jurisdiction.

The names should be submitted by August 4, 2017.

In an earlier statement, Macharia said in order to strengthen teaching and supervision, the commission will continuously review institutional administrative structures and practices.

“In view of this, we will implement some key school management policies to strengthen institutional management,” she said.

Macharia said that after implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) all primary school teachers at Job Group “K” and above who do not currently hold any administrative positions will convert to the new grading structure and be designated as Senior Teachers.

“They will then be assigned administrative duties in the school,” she said.

Macharia said all teachers in post-primary institutions in Job Group “M” and above and who are not heads of departments, deputy principals or principals will be designated as senior masters and assigned duties to head the various departments.

The measure will strengthen school management by bringing more institutional administrators on board, she said.

Macharia says the teachers must be qualified graduate, approved teacher, technical teacher or lecturer employed by TSC.

The teachers must demonstrate competence and ability as a classroom teacher and must also have served as a classroom teacher for a period of three years.

Specific details show that the number of senior masters per school will depend on the number of streams and enrollment of students.

For secondary schools, an institution with only four classrooms and a maximum student enrollment of 180 will have only one senior master.

A secondary school with 48 classrooms and an enrollment of 2,160 students will have the highest number of senior masters of nine.

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions with a maximum of 1,000 students will have eight senior masters. And those with more than 1,500 students will have 18 senior masters.

In secondary schools, senior masters will fall under nine categories: Humanities, science and mathematics, languages, technical and creative arts, boarding and co-curriculum activities.

Others are guidance and counseling, quality assistance and standards and academic and mentorship.

And for TVET institutions, senior masters will be in charge of agriculture and agricultural engineering, applied and health science, automotive engineering, computer studies, business and entrepreneurship, building and civil engineering.

Other categories in TVET are education and communicating, mechanical engineering, electrical and electronics engineering, institutional and hospitality management, surveying and architecture.

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