TSC has issued new requirements for an upcoming teachers Biometric Enrolment and Validation of Teachers (BEVOT) exercise in March 2022, which will be implemented in schools
Dr. Nancy Macharia, CEO of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), stated that the Commission will launch a nationwide Biometric Enrolment and Validation of Teachers (BEVOT) exercise in March 2022.
She stated that the biometric registration is about collecting bio data from teachers. For example, TSC will know if a teacher has returned to school to receive Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training.
“We’ll also find out if there’s anything we don’t know about the teacher. For example, we don’t know how many children a teacher has in the register, and this biometric process will provide us with more information “Macharia stated.
Teachers were recently involved in a profile updating exercise, which Macharia stated will result in teachers receiving registration certificates.
According to Macharia, updating teachers’ profiles is a separate exercise from biometric registration of teachers, but the two will be linked.
The biometric registration exercise will entail collecting a teacher’s biometric data for the purpose of improving service.
A piloting exercise has already been carried out in 143 selected public schools and colleges. TSC began the piloting exercise on May 17, 2021, at Nyeri High School.
TSC Director Administrative Services Ibrahim Mumin oversaw the piloting of the enrolment exercise, which was held in schools between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
According to the TSC, biometric registration will assist the Commission in verifying teacher distribution and utilization in schools, establishing areas of teaching specialization, validating enrollment in public schools, and authenticating teachers’ bio data and employment records.
Requirements
TSC listed requirements for teachers for the exercise during the piloting exercise.
TSC Director Administrative Services Ibrahim Mumin observes the Biometric Enrolment and Data Validation for teacher Jemah Mwangi at Nyeri High School during the pilot exercise’s launch.
During the exercise, teachers must physically present the following five documents:
⦁ Certificate of registration
⦁ National ID card
⦁ Letter of first appointment
⦁ Letter of last appointment
⦁ Academic Certificates
The process, which was supposed to be piloted in May of last year, was put on hold due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The pilot’s seven counties have been identified, with the national rollout tentatively scheduled for March 2022.
Uasin Gishu, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Nyeri, Kilifi, Kitui, and Garissa counties participated in the piloting exercise.
The counties were chosen because they represent both rural and urban environments, providing reliable lessons for the national rollout.
The pilot schools were chosen to represent a variety of geographical and socio-cultural backgrounds.
“The biometric regulation shall entail the validation of teacher data in all public primary and secondary schools, Teacher Training Colleges, the Centre for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA), and the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE),” according to the concept brief.
Only 143 schools were chosen to participate in this pilot stage. Primary, secondary, and teacher education colleges are among the institutions.
Exam Cheating
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia stated that biometric registration will aid in combating exam cheating.
It will entail collecting teachers’ fingerprints, which will then allow for forensic and intelligence-led investigations in cases where examination papers are tampered with and cell phones and other devices are used to commit examination malpractices.
“TSC takes automation a step further by launching the biometric enrollment system to facilitate teacher identification and reduce exam malpractice,” she said.
The use of biometric validation will help to protect innocent teachers from being held accountable for crimes they did not commit.
According to Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia, the teachers would use their cell phones to take screenshots of exam questions.
“We are nearing the end of our consultations with the Data Commissioner’s office on the rollout of biometric capture of all teachers.”
“In the future, all teachers who join the TSC will be subjected to biometric enrolment before they are placed on our payroll.”
Data for teachers in special programs, as well as curriculum support officers across all zones, will be collected.
TSC will update existing teacher bio data and validate the staff requirement in all public schools and teacher training colleges based on size and learner enrolment.
“The exercise will also reveal teacher distribution based on subject combinations, as well as staffing gaps that will inform training needs for various subject areas,” according to the brief.
The exercise’s implication is that the data collected will reveal how teachers are distributed across the country, a development that will inform staff rationalization.
“We will ensure optimal use of teachers while also balancing areas that we believe are underserved,” TSC Director of Administrative Services Ibrahim Mumin said at last year’s stakeholder meeting.
This means that some teachers will be transferred in order to achieve balanced staffing, as electronic registration will reveal imbalances in deployment.
The exercise will also catch teachers who miss classes for unapproved reasons, as the commission launches a campaign to hold its employees accountable via a biometric tool that will provide up-to-date attendance data.
During the stakeholder meeting, it was revealed that TSC intends to collect real-time clock-in data from teachers who attend classes, as well as absentee ones, using electronic devices that will be installed in schools.
Aging Employees
The commission will also have data on all aging employees, which will aid in effective planning for their retirement.
This also means that teachers who lied about their retirement age or who want to stay longer will be exposed.
The committees, coordinators, supervisors, and enumerators were trained on the biometric registration process in April of last year.
The configuration of the exercise’s tool kits has also been completed, and a registration user training manual has been produced.
A stakeholders’ conference for public participation was also held in March of last year, with teachers’ unions and associations, religious organizations, development partners, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) officials, and people with disabilities in attendance.
The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Council of Governors, the National Treasury, and the Public Service Commission.
The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Council of Governors, the National Treasury, and the Public Service Commission.
“We fully support this exercise and want it to be successful because it will help TSC plan better,” former Knut secretary general Wilson Session said at a workshop last year at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
It is worth noting that the registration will reveal ghost employees who may have drawn salaries from the Commission’s payroll over the years.
The exercise’s findings will put an end to a long-standing claim that thousands of teachers have improperly withdrawn salaries from the TSC’s pay roll over the years.
Conflicting Numbers
In a 2009 report, the Efficiency Monitoring Unit discovered a conflicting number of teachers in documents submitted by the TSC.
Analysis of documents submitted to the unit revealed that over 20,000 teachers were missing.
TSC had 227,581 teachers on its November payroll at the time, compared to 207,554 submitted by provincial heads.
The unit was to conduct a survey of declining compliance to declaration of wealth by public officers.
The closest TSC came to smoking out ghost teachers was in 2015 when the employer contracted an insurance broker to administer a medical scheme.
The firm rolled out a biometric listing where teachers’ input their TSC number, national identity card number and mobile phone number.
The plan was to cross-check the data against what was with the TSC, Communications Authority of Kenya and National Registrar of Persons databases to enable three-way matching.