The Teachers Services Commission, TSC, milestone changes in the manner in which will affect how school administrators will be appointed. In a bid to decentralise responsibilities, the appointment of all primary school and secondary schools’ administrators (apart from extra county and national schools) shall now be decentralised to the counties and regional offices.
It is important to note that primary school administrators include: head teachers, their deputies and senior teachers. On the other hand, secondary school administrators are: Principals, their deputies and senior masters.
“The commission has directed that the appointment and deployment of of all primary schools institutional administrators and all institutional administrators for county, sub county and day (secondary) schools be coordinated by the Regional Director.” reads, in part, the latest circular by TSC boss Dr. Nancy Macharia.
This latest directive is an commandment to the 2017 circular on ‘POLICY ON APPOINTMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL ADMINISTRATORS’. In this circular, appointment and deployment of school administrators rested solely with the head quarter.
In the new guidelines, the county director (TSC) has been mandated to identify the number of available administrative vacancies within the county. The TSC head office shall then advertise the existing vacancies. Applications shall then be made online by interested and qualified candidates.
The head office shall do the shortlisting and send lists to respective counties. The Regional Director will then conduct interviews for selected candidates; in liaison with respective county directors. It will now be the responsibility of the Regional Director to appoint and deploy successful candidates.
The regional selection panel shall have the regional director (who shall be the chair), the host county director (secretary), the host county Human Resource Officer and all other county directors from the region.
Similarly, the county selection committee shall be composed of: the county director (chairperson), host sub county director (secretary), the county Human Resource Officer and all other sub county directors from the county.
The regional director will be fully in charge of the whole exercise.
“This (appointment and deployment of school administrators) is a sensitive assignment that requires your individual supervision and coordination. You are expected to ensure that the exercise is carried out in a transparent and accountable manner.” reads the act by the TSC boss to all regional directors.