KNUT questions hiring of teachers in Mombasa

More than 100 shortlisted applicants were Wednesday interviewed for teaching positions in Mombasa amid accusations by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) that the union was excluded from the exercise.

The teachers union also said the exercise was futile, adding that it could not address the biting shortage of teachers in the county.

At least 501 teachers in the area submitted their applications for the vacant teaching posts, which were advertised earlier by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

Knut Coast executive member Dan Aloo accused TSC of not involving them in the interview panel as part of ensuring that the process was transparent and accountable.

The Knut official also said that the 53 primary school teachers hired by the commission would not be sufficient in addressing an existing shortfall of 500 teachers in primary schools in the area.

“TSC must also be regulated. How can we have TSC as the director, the human resource and the staffer? Knut and the Ministry of Education have to be included in the recruitment panel,” Aloo complained over the telephone.

“What is currently going on is not teacher hiring but crisis management in schools of teachers who have died and retired. We have over 100 public schools in the county. How will those 53 teachers work? Will they divide themselves to teach in all the schools?” he posed.

QUARTERLY HIRING

However, Mombasa TSC county director of education Ibrahim Rugut, who was coordinating the interviews at his office, said that though they hired only 53 teachers, the remaining 54 of the 107 shortlisted applicants would be considered as replacements on a quarterly basis.

“We will be employing the teachers who remained in the list after we employ the 53 teachers whenever there is a vacancy for replacement, such as retirement, on a quarterly basis,” said Rugut.

In an interview ahead of the recruitment, he had said that two panels would be involved in hiring primary school teachers. One is the sub-county panel that shortlisted candidates at the sub-county level, made up of the staffing officer as the chair, the human resource officer as the secretary and two teacher advisory centre tutors (TACs).

The shortlisted candidates are then forwarded to the county level where a panel would be chaired by the TSC county director, the TSC staffing officer as the secretary, the TSC county human resource officer as a member and all sub-county staffing officers.

HEALTH WORKERS' STRIKE

The TSC official noted that they shortlisted candidates for the posts on Monday and begun interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday.

He said that successful candidates, upon completing the interviews in the afternoon, immediately signed the employment forms that would be sent to the TSC headquarters Thursday for hiring.

Separately, the Knut Coast chapter has urged the government to quickly resolve the health workers' strike before schools resume next week.

Executive directoor Aloo said that many students and teachers would be affected if the hospitals remained closed as a result of the strike.

“When teachers and pupils fall ill, where are they going to be treated if the government does not pay health workers in time?” he asked.

This is the second week that health services have been paralyzed in the county after health workers went on strike due to unpaid July salaries and a shortage of medical supplies.