TSC Clarifies Grade 7 One-Teacher Policy for JSS 12 subjects
The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) has come under scrutiny from Members of Parliament over the sufficiency of one teacher for 12 subjects in Grade 7.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia explained that some subjects have only one or two lessons per week, and therefore it does not make sense to recruit a teacher for only one subject weekly in a school.
Macharia suggested that teachers may be shared between schools like Alliance Boys and Alliance Girls so that their services are utilized optimally. This would mean that one teacher could teach more than one subject for Junior secondary.
“If you check subject allocation, there’s a subject called life skills which has one lesson and another one called Health education which has two,” Macharia said.
The committee chair Julius Melly questioned how many teachers in primary schools qualify to teach Junior Secondary School (JSS), while Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera queried why the Commission settled on one teacher per classroom.
“What are you doing with the issue of Grade 7 teachers shortage as a Commission, because time is moving?” Melly asked.
The shortage of qualified teachers is particularly acute in subjects such as mathematics, science, and foreign languages.
In many cases, schools are forced to hire unqualified or underqualified teachers to fill the gaps, which can have a negative impact on the quality of education that students receive.
This is particularly true in rural areas, where the shortage of qualified teachers is often more severe.
At least 10,000 interns will report to their Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) by the end of the week, according to TSC.
The TSC boss told parliament that the commission had recently upgraded over 10,000 primary school teachers to Junior Secondary School (JSS) level.
TSC Clarifies Grade 7 One-Teacher Policy for JSS 12 subjects
