The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on the 17th of May 2021 began the process of biometric enrolment and validation of teachers in 143 schools that they selected.
The exercise is targeting teachers in 143 institutions spread across 7 counties namely Uasin Gishu, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Nyeri, Kilifi, Kitui, and Garissa.
The exercise of enrolment is going to be done during the normal working hours of between 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, which is within the official working hours.
According to TSC Director Ibrahim Mumin, who oversaw the launch of the exercise at the Nyeri Boys High School on Monday morning, said there is a need to maintain up-to-date data of teachers.
The biometric registration will go a long way in assisting the Commission to verify the distribution of teachers and their utilization in schools, validate the enrolment in public schools, establish areas of teaching specialization and authenticate teachers’ biodata alongside their employment records.
TSC listed requirements for teachers during the exercise that begins yesterday till the 21st of May 2021. Teachers are required to physically provide the documents below during the exercise.
- National Identification Card
- Certificate of registration
- Academic certificates
- Letter of the first appointment
- Letter of the last appointment
However, this is a piloting exercise for the program that is planned to be launched countrywide after bottlenecks that may arise are solved.
According to the April 2021 figures, there were 224,075 primary school teachers in 22,821 public schools; 117,120 secondary school teachers in 9,043 public secondary schools and teacher training colleges; serving a learner population of 8, 071,662 in primary schools and 2,761,769 in public secondary schools and teacher training colleges.
The TSC director stated that the exercise is a multi-agency exercise that involves different government agencies, and the pilot will guide the national roll-out.
The data to be verified includes the identification details of the teachers, letter of appointment, PWD certifications if any, and academic certificates that are run against preloaded data from the IPPD.
This comes after Baringo Teachers’ unions and security officials clash over pushing of teachers to serve in the banditry-prone areas amid the ongoing operation.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) on Sunday came out strongly to demand the withdrawal of all teachers out of the insecurity zones.
“Education is not a matter of life and death and as a union, we are not ready to lose any of our members to the deadly bullets of bandits” KNUT Baringo branch Executive Joshua Cheptarus said.
Currently, learning is yet to resume in about ten schools: Chemoroing’ion, Arabal, Kapndasum, Embosos, Kasiela, Chebinyiny, and Sossionte primary schools, also Kiserian, Sinoni, and Nyimbei primary and secondary schools in Baringo South sub-county.
Read More: All TSC Teachers Now Have Insurance Cover Against Covid-19