IN SHORT: A fake letter claiming to be from the Teachers Service Commission is circulating, directing officials to submit names of teachers for JSS deployment in 2025. It is not authentic.
Kenya’s Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has asked its officials to submit the names of teachers to be deployed at junior secondary schools (JSS) in 2025. This is according to a letter circulating on Facebook.
As the largest employer in Kenya, the TSC manages public school teachers.
The letter's headline reads: “SUBMISSION OF NAMES OF TEACHERS TO BE DEPLOYED TO JUNIOR SCHOOL 2025.”
It directs regional, county and sub-county TSC directors to inform secondary school principals to submit the names of qualified teachers to be posted to junior secondary schools.
The criteria include teachers who are new to the profession, those who are overstaffed based on subject combination needs, teachers with subjects with low enrolment, and those who can switch to subjects that are in higher demand in the JSS.
The names of selected teachers are to be submitted by 1 October 2024, according to the letter.
The context
In May, TSC began deploying 1,206 primary school teachers to junior secondary schools as part of the implementation of the competency based curriculum (CBC).
The curriculum, based on the 2-6-3-3-3 system, was introduced in 2017 to replace the 8-4-4 system that had been in place for 32 years. The new system is designed to focus on the development of students’ skills and talents.
In this curriculum, pre-primary education lasts for two years, followed by six years of primary education. Students then move on to junior secondary education for three years, followed by another three years of senior secondary education, and finally to university or tertiary education, which takes at least three years.
The TSC planned to address the teacher shortage by hiring over 46,000 intern teachers on a permanent basis from 1 July. However, this has been delayed due to legal and financial challenges.
An appeals court overturned a ruling that would have required TSC to convert internships into permanent jobs, after the company argued that it lacked the funds to do so. As a result, TSC decided to extend the contracts of trainee teachers for another year, allowing them to fill vacancies without having to advertise the positions, thus ensuring continuity in the junior secondary schools.
But the challenges didn't stop there, as 742 JSS teachers were sacked after going on strike over unpaid salaries.
The letter appears here and here. (Note: See more instances listed at the end of this report.)
So, did the TSC really send this letter to its officials, raising the hopes of many public teachers in the country? We checked.
Ignore fake letter
Despite the letter being circulated on social media, there has been no official report on this directive.
The TSC has flagged the letter as fake on its official Facebook page and X (formerly Twitter) account.
“Beware of fraudsters! This is fake news,” it wrote.
This letter has also been posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Add new comment