Kuppet criticism of teacher Career Progression Guidelines hypocritical

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers has come out guns blazing criticizing the manner in which the Teachers’ Service Commission is conducting the ongoing interviews for promotion of teachers.

The union claims, according to a story in the Daily Nation Newspaper on February 12, that the score sheet being used by TSC in the interviews favours teachers in extra-county and national schools as they usually perform better.

 Their bone of contention is that the Career Progression Guidelines (CPGs) and Teachers Professional Appraisal and Development (TPADs) being used stresses more on the category of schools and performance of students rather than the actual performance and competency of a teacher.

While their claim may be true and sadly so, Kuppet has no moral authority to criticise the implementation of the Career Progression Guidelines, either in part or in whole. Kuppet has consistently told their members that the CPG was the real deal.

When many classroom teachers felt left out in the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement, which awarded hefty pay hikes for school heads and their deputies, the leadership of the union insisted that the CBA (which they claim contained the CPG) they signed was the best in the history of teaching service in Kenya.

Although the CPG is a document which has not been mentioned in any legal documents governing the remuneration and Promotion of teachers including the CBA itself and the Code of Regulation for Teachers, the union has remained lukewarm in the cry of many of its members who have stagnated in various job groups for long.

Teachers employed with a diploma qualification, teaching in secondary schools, for instance, and who were due for promotions in 2018 when the CPG came into effect, actually petitioned Kuppet to seek redress from TSC with a view to causing the commission to automatically promote them from job group C2 to C3 as has been the case before.

The union still maintains that CPG is better than common cadre promotions and that the teachers had a better deal in CPG.

Many members of Kuppet are stagnated at job group C3 with those eligible for promotions in the next job group estimated to be in the upwards of 40,000 teachers. These interviews only target to promote about 7000 teachers.

With KUPPET benefiting from an increased membership and monthly remittances from membership subscriptions and agency fees (for non-members), it is reasonable to conclude that the union is being hypocritical. Indeed in every labour relations, the spirit of give and take holds. KUPPET cannot have its cake and eat it.

Justus Omondi Olwande, high school teacher, Murang'a