John S. Khabamba

 Junior Secondary School Teachers have called out the Teachers Service Commission for organizing retooling during the festive December Holidays. The displeased teachers cite the inconvenience the commission will pose for them to attend the week long training. Photo:Courtesy   "The Teachers Service Commission has planned the retooling of teachers handling grade 7 and 8 (Junior School) in Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and Competency Based Assessment (CBA) with the effect from 20th November to 5th December, 2024..." read part of the circular dated 28th October, 2024. While the teachers appreciate the need of organizing such workshops, they have faulted their employer for 'inconvenient timing.' The face to face training will take place between 2nd and 5th December in select venues at the Subcounty level. Consequently, teachers who had traveled to their homes for December Holidays will be forced to travel back to their stations and back again to their homes after the t...

Jobless primary school teachers commonly known as P1 teachers are up in arms demanding the Teachers Service Commission to add them to its payroll. The tutors are citing unfairness in recent recruitment with the employer focusing on Graduates in staffing Junior Secondary schools. But, is Jss the reason for not employing P1 teachers? Well, on face value the commission cannot be blamed but let's face it, JSS Transition is as lame as it gets . Here is why...  Photo: TSC CEO, Dr. Nancy Macharia. ( Credit : The Standard  Teacher shortage in Public Educational Institutions has  rocked this country  since pre-independance era to date. Different governments have tried to plug the deficit but the efforts  are yet to achieve the ideal student to teacher ratio. The roll out of Competence Based Curriculum was bound to deepen the teacher shortage crisis as the new curriculum gave rise to a whole new dynamic of permeating knowledge, skills and attitudes in addition to  in...

It is little over a month since the historic ouster of former Deputy President, Rigathi Gachagua but  some quotas of the population are still wrapping their heads around this unprecedented development. Yes, it happened! The DP was indeed removed through a constitutional process. While the constitution has such provision, did the framers shoot themselves in the foot by creating a 'opportunistic' process for political maneuvering?  Photo: Courtesy  One of the fundamental reasons as to why a new constitutional dispensation was indispensable  was to strengthen the constitutional institutions. To give them some independence dimension which was glaringly lacking in the previous dispensation. The executive which bore the biggest brunt of political intrusion in the old constitution era was set to be relieved. The Presidency oscillated around an all-powerful individual who  wielded excess potency that turned them  into  mafia rulers; dictating with an iron-fist...

 Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD)  has made a flurry of changes to the CBC curriculum in  upper primary and Junior school levels. This is according to the newly published curriculum designs on their official website.  Photo:Courtesy: KICD logo The curriculum developers at the start of the  year, made significant changes to the CBC curriculum framework by rationalizing the content from pre-primary to Junior school. This came as a result of the recommendations  of Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER). For instance, the learning areas in Junior School were reduced from 15 to only 9 (all of them being compulsory). This was geared towards addressing the overloads, overlaps and repetition in the related learning areas. KICD swiftly released the rationalized curriculum designs for use in the facilitation of learning as the process of publishing of new  learners' textbooks  in line with the rationalizaton and merger kick...

Budget and Appropriation Committee At National Assembly chair, Ndindi Nyoro has told the Teachers Service Commission to permanently employ JSS interns claiming the money was already allocated in 2024-25 budget. Kiharu MP, Ndindi Nyoro speaking in Nandi County  Photo courtesy   He urged the teachers' employer to officially communicate  the conversion road map to quell the anxiety amongst Junior School teachers. " We know, that the TSC is an independent commission but as parliament we have allocated money for confirmation of JSS teachers or interns into permanent and Pensionable. " I humbly request, please TSC give an official communication to JSS teachers who are currently interned on the day you're going to confirm them into permanent and Pensionable terms so that they   can actually know and they can be able to budget," he continued.  " We have heard voices from us, we have heard voices from the Treasury and we have also heard from the CS for Education, th...

Under fire  Kenya Union Of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General, Akello Misori, has revealed that JSS interns confirmation was not on the table during negotiations to end high school tutors' strike. Photo: Courtesy  Speaking exclusively to NTV, at his office in Nairobi, a seemingly shaky SG,  intimated that the return to work formula signed between the union and the employer (TSC) did not contain the JSS confirmation component. "The issue of employing Junior Secondary School Teachers was not discussed despite the pressure to  TSC to include it into the return to work formula", Misori told the NTV journalist in the sit down interview. "The confirmation issue has taken the political route...the Ministry of Education gave out a promissory note on confirmation of JSS interns come January but as a union we cannot compel TSC to employ any teacher as it is beyond our purview," he continued. Akello, who is  on the spot  for 'unprocedurally'...

Teacher's representatives; Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) have taken different positions on the teachers'  strike that  was/is set to begin on Monday. KNUT Secretary General, Collins Oyuu (left) consults with his KUPPET counterpart, Akello Misori during a meeting with TSC.  Photo by The Standard Kenya   The two unions had issued strike notices with similar demands to the employer TSC earlier in the month. Top on the list, was the implementation of second phase of the 2021-25 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). A series of meetings were held to avert the crisis occasioned by the probable industrial action. The last-gasp talks at the Kenya School of Government yielded partial fruits as the employer agreed to honor the CBA pact. Although the fate of the other demands remained vague, TSC, in its press release, noted that the unions had agreed to withdraw the strike notices after consulting their inte...