Mass teacher transfers loom as senior school rollout strains staff

Teachers' Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia before the National Assembly's Committee on Education at the Bunge Towers, Nairobi. [File, Standard ]

It is now emerging that a mass reshuffle of secondary school teachers could be in the offing as institutions prepare to admit the first class of Senior School in January.

A document by the Ministry of Education, titled 'National Report: County-Based Dialogue on Education Quality and Learning Outcomes in Competency-Based Education (CBE)- which will guide the transition from Junior School to Senior Secondary - proposes the redistribution of teachers to address shortages.

The plan recommends reallocating teachers based on the pathways individual schools will offer - a move that could see thousands of teachers transferred across counties and regions.

According to the report, schools are grappling with severe shortages, particularly in technical and vocational education subjects.

The scarcity, the report notes, mainly affects teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), raising fears over the effective teaching and learning in Senior School.

"Stakeholders expressed concern over the shortage of teachers across various learning areas. They particularly noted specialised fields such as Music under Creative Arts, Special Needs Education (SNE), and Pre-Technical Studies," the report states.

If implemented, the move could spark major controversy as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) moves to enforce the

Mass teacher transfers in the past have often sparked outrage among teachers' unions and school communities.

In 2018, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) faced a wave of protests after implementing a delocalization policy that transferred teachers away from their home counties in the name of national integration.

Many teachers reported family separation, psychological distress, financial strain and difficulties adjusting to new cultural environments.

At the time, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) accused the government of implementing the transfers without adequate consultation, branding the exercise as punitive rather than progressive.

"We want family consideration to be put in place, we also want those teachers affected to be moved within their locality," Nthurima told The Standard.