Teachers employer switches off analogue communication channels

Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia and Education CS George Magoha at a recent function in Nairobi. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

Applications for teachers’ transfers, recruitment, and promotions will now be done online as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) goes digital in all its communication with staff.

Communication from the TSC says that it has successfully migrated services related to recruitment and promotions of teachers to an online system and cautioned that there will be no more manual from March.

In a circular to all teachers, Commission Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said all applications for transfer, promotions, and recruitment shall be accessed through the website.

Dr Macharia also said that all communication between TSC and its staff will be done through staff emails and advised that any correspondence made outside the e-platform will not be acted on starting May.

She said all teachers have between now and the end of the month to activate their staff emails which will be the sole communication channel with the employer.

“The exercise of activating the emails takes effect from February 15 and will close April 30, 2021,” said Dr Macharia.
Dr Macharia said the platform will be used for official communication between the Commission and teachers including the transmission of official letters, Circulars, Pay-slips, and responses to teachers’ inquiries amongst others.

Presently teachers log into the Commission website to access their payslips.

And circulars are sent to teachers through a long command of County Directors and Sub County Directors.

The platform targets all teachers employed by the Commission and those undergoing internship programmes.
“All Heads of Institutions and teachers including those on internship are required to activate their email accounts provided on the platform and use it for all communications to the Commission,” said Dr Macharia.

Other than teachers' individual emails, headteachers will also activate school email addresses that will be the direct communication channel between the school and then Commission.

“Heads of institutions shall update the teachers' official email address and registered personal mobile phone number in the Teacher Management Information System (TMIS) within 30 days after all teachers in the institution have activated their emails,” reads the circular.

Dr Macharia said the school email address will be available to subsequent heads of institutions for continuity.
Through the e-platform, Dr Macharia said schools can also mount online or virtual meetings.

“Institutions can therefore use the platform to hold virtual meetings while teachers will be able to create peer groups to carry out learning activities including mentoring and coaching.”

Dr Macharia said this is part of the broad ICT reforms adopted by the Commission.

She said TSC has digitised its records, bringing an end to paper files that have been an eyesore at the institution’s registry.

Electronic payslips, online tax deductions mechanisms and teacher registrations, which are fully done online, are listed as some of the milestones achieved so far.