Learning crisis as retiring teachers are retained

Some 32,264 Kenyan teachers nearing retirement will report to schools countrywide on Monday with the news that they now have up to 10 more years in service, the Nation has learnt.

Some of them, who were about to turn 55 years, were not expecting to return to classrooms this term, but will now work for another five years, thanks to last month’s government move to increase the retirement age from 55 to 60 years.

The new rule, which came into effect on April 1, has been opposed by some MPs and students.

The 32,264 teachers are aged between 50 and 55 years, the group that was headed to the exit door if the government retained the earlier retirement age. There are 1,087 more others aged between 55 and 60 years.

Computers

The increase in the retirement age means the teachers will have between five and 10 years on the job, unless they decided to exit through early retirement, which comes at 50 years.

In total, there are 234,526 teachers in the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) employ.

But an analysis of the statistics shows that the new rule could increasingly put the school system in an ageing crisis as the teaching force will comprise a huge chunk of older teachers.

Such teachers are likely to find it difficult to embrace new subjects such as computers and HIV and Aids.

There is also likely to be a lack of personnel to take children through physical education lessons or sports activities.

According to the statistics, 180,074 teachers are aged 35 years and above. Of these, the age group with the highest number of teachers is that of between 40 and 44 years, which has 55,201. It is followed by the group of those aged between 35 and 39 years, which has 46,898 teachers.

In the group of those between 50 and 54 years, the teachers who would have retired within the next five years, there are 32,264. These are the teachers who will help the government save Sh15 billion over the next five years by remaining in service instead of exiting to go home with their pension. This means it will save Sh3 billion annually.

During a conference for secondary school student leaders last month, participants argued against having many older teachers in schools.

Students proposed that more younger teachers be posted to schools as they were more suitable to handle maturity problems that affect youngsters.

Public Service Commission permanent secretary Titus Ndambuki said recently that the move was a wise idea as it would ease government expenditure on pension payouts, which were expected to hit the Sh100 million mark by 2030.

In the current financial year that ends in June, the state had earmarked Sh26 billion for the payouts, which were expected to increase to Sh30 billion in the next financial year.

But now, the additional Sh3 billion will not be allocated under the programme “because there are no new retirees”, Mr Ndambuki said.

But keeping the teachers in schools may not necessarily be a good idea since the profession is not just a “sitting-in-the-office” job.

Many teachers have to be energetic to walk about classrooms as they teach and be ready to attend to co-curricula activities that are essential for the teachers.

It is estimated that about 7,000 teachers have been leaving the service, many of them through retirements. Others leave through resignations, deaths and sacking.

Filling the posts

Due to the departures, the TSC has been filling the posts that fall vacant each year, at an average of 8,000 in primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions.

But this figure is likely to be trimmed after TSC boss Gabriel Lengoiboni hinted recently that he was conducting an audit to establish the number of those retiring.

“We expect to replace teachers as we have done annually only that the figures might be less than in previous years,” he said.

Failure to recruit more teachers in the lower age groups is likely to perpetuate the ageing crisis, with less than 1,000 teachers below 25 years.

There are only 539 teachers aged between 20 and 24 years. A larger number, 13,828, are aged between 25 and 29 years.
With the numbers heavily skewed towards the older age groups, the message is clear that a lot is needed to address the ageing crisis.

Mr Ndambuki allayed the fears, saying the ageing crisis was being addressed through sustained recruitment of new public servants and others from the private sector.

He said more teachers would still be hired for schools each year to address the ageing gaps.

Public Service head Francis Muthaura explained that a high pensions bill and lack of skilled manpower at senior levels were some of the reasons the retirement age was changed.

He said that the current policy of allowing civil servants to retire at the age of 55 years was rendering people who should be contributing to the economy “unproductive”, with taxpayers funding their pensions.

He said the experienced staff’s retirement also left government departments with succession gaps in key areas, “necessitating requests for retention beyond retirement age or reengagement on contract”.

“The Public Service has continued to lose employees with critical skills while they are still productive,” Mr Muthaura said.

Experience

“This is particularly with regard to employees in the professional and technical areas in whom the government has invested considerable resources in training and capacity building.”

Besides, the staff possess many years of hands-on-experience in their respective professions, he added. Mr Muthaura’s circular gave relief to employees who had received retirement notices or had their pension claims already prepared, but had not attained the 55-year retirement age by March 5.

He said they will continue to serve until the age of 60 years if they wished. The new policy will see more than 10,000 civil servants and teachers, who would have retired this year, remain at work.

Currently, the civil service has 188,442 employees.

Recently, Mr Ndambuki announced that the government was finally winning the problem of ageing in the civil service after ending the embargo on recruitment of staff.