TSC appeals to teachers to embrace ICT

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chairperson Dr.Lydia Nzomo has appealed to teachers to embrace ICT in their profession so as to be at par with the ever changing world and reduce the congestion that occurs when most of the tutors physically visit the headquarters.
Speaking during an annual TSC open forum held at Chuka University in Tharaka Nithi County Wednesday, Dr. Nzomo emphasized on the need to use internet services to get vital services rather than visiting TSC offices in Nairobi or the various county offices.
“With over 318,000 employees countrywide, visiting the headquarters is not only costly but also time wasting while the services are available through the internet at every corner of the republic,” she said.
The chairperson said TSC is committed in embracing technology and innovation in all its operations, so as to bring services closer to the teachers and minimize their frequent travels to the headquarters and also county offices to seek assistance.
The open forum whose theme was, “Innovation and Technology in service delivery,” also aims at sensitizing teachers on integration of technological innovations so as to deliver quality teaching services to the learners.
Dr.Nzomo further disclosed that TSC is working on introduction of electronic files to teachers which would be effected in November 2019, adding that the rollout, among other reasons is aimed at eliminating the problem of missing files for teachers and enhance the usage of the files by more than one user at one particular period of time.
Among services that teachers can seek from the internet include gaining access to online tax deduction cards (P9 forms) and pays slips, activities of the commission and also applications for promotions.
At the same time, a seamless communication system engineered by the commission, Internet Protocol Electronic System has been launched in 11 counties and the same would be made available in the remaining counties in due time.
On the contentious Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), the chairperson reiterated commitment of the commission in ensuring that the curriculum becomes a success.
She added that the commission will have trained a total of 288,000 teachers by December 2019, while the number of those trained already stands at 149,810.
Meanwhile, the TSC chair expressed concerns over the shortage of teachers in all public primary schools, while promising that the commission was doing all it could to mitigate its effects by employing interns.
“In addition to the teachers that we are able to employ annually on permanent and pensionable basis, we will also be able to get others as interns,” she said.
On the other hand, Nzomo urged teachers to take the issue of security of the learners very seriously at the schoo level, noting that the constitution expects children to be protected from any form of abuse, neglect, harmful cultural practices, and all forms of violence, corporal punishment, discrimination and exposure to exploitive labour.
By Dominic Ntoogo/David Mutwiri