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Diploma teachers write petition to TSC over stagnation and no promotions

November 24, 2024

TSC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Nancy Macharia. The Commission has released a list of 3,500 teachers and staff who failed to file their 2017/2019 wealth declarations and have since been expunged from the TSC payroll.

Teachers who are holders of diplomas have written to the Teachers Service Commission, TSC, over stagnation in promotions. In the petition, the teachers claim that the Commission has failed to promote them even after attaining higher qualifications. See the details below;

RE : PETITION/ COMPLAINT- DISCRIMINATION OF TEACHERS WITH THE QUALIFICATION OF A DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION ON PROMOTION TO JOB GROUP C3 AND RELATED MATTERS

The above subject refers.

We, the undersigned are teachers currently employed by the Teachers Service Commission with the qualification of a Diploma in Education in secondary schools. We are a sample representative of all the teachers with the similar qualifications in the Republic of Kenyaemployed or intending to be employed by the Teachers’ Service Commission and are experiencing challenges related to our scheme of service.

We draw the attention of our employer,to issues of discrimination as far as promotion is concerned. We are pretty aware that such matters are supposed to be handled by the teacher’s union. However, we have broken the protocol since the union has turned deaf ears for years. We kindly beg for favor.

Article 41(2)(a) of the constitution stipulates that every worker has a right to fair remuneration. This right is not being enjoyed by the teachers mentioned above.

The following two key issues affect diploma teachers and are impacting negatively on our output, adversely affecting our direct clients- learners :-

Promotion from JG C2 to JG C3

Since the effective date of the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the Teachers’ Service Commission shelved the automatic promotion from JG C2 to C3 of teachers who were employed with the qualification of a Diploma in Educationand have served for three (3) years in JG C2 underschemes of service which provided for Common Cadre Establishment Promotions.A good number of us have Stagnated in C2 for close to ten years, even after legally upgrading our professional level to bachelor’s degree.

Section 74 of the TSC CORT(2015) envisages that the commission shall promote teachers in accordance with the schemes of service which provides for Common Cadre Establishment Promotions and Competitive Promotions. For competitive promotions the regulations require thatteachers shall complete the teacher proficiency course, which course guidelines, attendance mechanism and administration were not developed by the employer at the time the automatic promotion was shelved. The only room for promotion at the time we were due for job group L (equivalent to current C3) wasCommon Cadre Establishment which was the only operational mode of promotion of teachers under the schemes of service as per section 73 of the TSC CORT (2015). The regulations compel the TSC to promote teachers and do not give any lee way.TSC applied CPG retrogressively to us.

Section 12 of the CBA between KUPPET and TSC (2017-2021) stated that career progression in teaching service shall be implemented as provided under part VI of code of regulations for teachers 2015. It is worth noting that we were due for promotion to this grade- C3 when the 2017-2021 CBA was in operation. Both the CBA and the CORT recognizedL as common cadre promotion for all secondary teachers. On the contrary, CPG halts promotion of diploma teachers from C2 to C3. CORT is a legal document approved by parliament while CBA is legally superior to CPG. We therefore appeal to TSC to find out the cause of the contradiction between 2017-2021 CBA and CORT versus CPG.

The action of the employer to only promote those who joined the service with a Bachelor of Education Degree from JG C2 to JG C3 is discriminatory and is against the principle of fair industrial practices of fair remuneration. Note that teachers who join service with a diploma in education usually starts at a lower job group than graduates to balance the qualifications (which is quite okay). Denying diploma teachers automatic promotion to C3 is a therefore unfair and punitive.

Further discrimination is evident on the fact that P1 teachers who have pursued degrees got promoted to C2 and will automatically get to C3 as graduates, yet diploma teachers who have pursued the same degrees are not promoted.

This action has already lowered the morale of thousands of Diploma teachers across the country causing anxiety and depression. To make the matters worse, many have not received any feed back from TSC concerning the early 2021 interviews.

All Diploma in Education holders employed by the TSC attained the requisite university entry grades. We joined the revered teacher training colleges as a matter of choice and our expectations were that we would have opportunity to rise to the top. It must be understood that we did not fail in our Kenya Certificate of secondary Education. We obtained at least a C+ as mean grade and at least a C+ in the two teaching subjects, like any other secondary school teacher.

Recognition of Bachelor of Education Degree Certificate

Many of us have since the attainment of our Diploma in Teacher Education qualifications proceeded and attained our Bachelor of Education Degrees. We, actingindividually, have forwarded these certificates and supporting transcripts to the TSC for recognition. The TSC only responded with a ‘Letter of Acknowledgement’, promising to communicate later. Many have waited for this communication for close to ten years.

This lack of recognition falls short of the TSC regulations(2015) section 73 which provides that when promoting a teacher, the commission shall consider the existing schemes of service and among other parameters, the academic and professional qualifications.

We, teachers with the qualification of Diploma in Education, therefore, humbly request our employer to kindly:

Reviewimplementation of the 2017-2021 CBA and the TSC Regulations (2015) with regard to matters promotion of diploma teachers in order to fix the anomaly.
Recognize the Bachelor of Education qualification subsequently obtained by the teachers who joined the service with a Diploma in Education qualification and use them as the only parameter for promotion to C3 without interviews.

Revert back to Common Cadre Establishment Promotionsfor diploma teachers at JG C2 after serving in C2 for three yearswithout promotional interviews since we have already acquired what the interview sorts to find out. Note that our colleagues with degrees (which we toohave) are not subjected to interviews for C3.

We look forwards to your positive response. Thank you in advance.

Yours Faithfully,

Frustrated Diploma Teachers.

Care of davekush52@gmail.com