December 15, 2017 By Patrick Jaiah Kamara
Participants at the validation workshop
With support from the European Union and Department for International Development (DFID), the Teaching Service Commission of Sierra Leone (TSC) yesterday validated the Teaching Management Policy Guidelines.
The one-day workshop, which was held at the Commission’s headquarter on Pricilla Street attracted heads of schools, professors, lecturers and experts among others, to make teaching management policy legal which would inform professionalism and quality services.
In her welcome address, Mrs. Elfreda Scott, who stood in the shoes of the chairperson of TSC, noted that the commission was established by an Act of parliament and has four broad mandates including registration and licensing of teachers, teacher management, teacher development & performance, and teacher employer relation.
She told the gathering that teaching management is about the whole profile of teachers including recruitment, deployment, transfer, promotion, teacher records and payroll.
Mrs. Scott stated that they were reviewing and updating the several policies relating to their mandates.
“The consultant was hired by our development partners to have consultation with education stakeholders who have contributed to this draft policy that would be validated today,” she said.
In his power point presentation, the hired Consultant, Dr. Claudius Bat-William, stated that the document was one that the TSC would use to manage the affairs of teachers.
“We have gone across Sierra Leone talking to teachers and we had a great input from them that have been extremely valuable in getting this process done,” he said.
He said they noted that a lot of decision making needs to be decentralised as many teachers resented of always coming to Freetown to do minor things.
“We tried as much as possible to keep decision making at district level so that the TSC district office would engage teachers directly. We don’t have powers at this stage to change the conditions of services for teachers but we have set some grounds for TSC which they would engage the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies. There are lots of things that needed to be changed which we have identified,” he said.
While talking about recruitment of teachers during the discussion process, Principal of Anni Walsh Senior School, Mrs. Ophelia Morrisson, who also doubles as chairperson of the Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, drew the attention of TSC to the many unqualified teachers heading private schools.
“Many proprietors heading schools are not qualified. But they would tell you that ‘I invest my money and no one would dictate to me’. This is very bad. The TSC must do something about it,” she said.
Concerns were also raised about Muslims heading Christian mission schools and vice versa.