TSC advises teachers over queries

By YVONNE KAMBIBEL
TEACHERS who have queries that cannot be resolved at the provincial level can take them to the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), it says.
TSC chairman Samson Wangihomie said: “Under Section 12 of the Teaching Service Act, teachers have the right to bring forth their complaints to discuss with TSC as the employer.” Wangihomie told The National that much of the responsibilities had been decentralised so the provincial education board would be the first stop for teachers.
He said teachers had to follow directives issued by TSC to avoid unnecessary hiccups at the start and close of a year.
Wangihomie said there had been instances when schools and teachers had defied orders from them and had suffered the consequences.
“An example would be the appointment of teachers who have re-signed to return to the classrooms to teach,” he said.
TSC, he emphasised, had a way of dealing with such cases where teachers who have positions to teach in schools remain on the payroll while those who have been appointed after their resignations teach without pay.
Wangihomie warned that duty provinces were not to make appointments of teachers who had resigned. “Under Section 122 of the Teaching Service Act, there are no provisions to get back such teachers,” he said.
Wangihomie said schools had been advised to send their teachers to study and acquire qualification required to teach at certain levels.
Elementary teachers with a diploma will teach at the primary level while primary school teachers with a degree will teach at junior high from now on under the reform, he said.
Wangihomie clarified that teachers who had resigned did not include ones who had been out for medical reasons or those convicted.