Recruitment of teachers kicks off in Mombasa County

Applicants at Mwijjabu Secondary School in Changamwe, Mombasa on Wednesday morning wait to be interviewed in the on-going teacher recruitment. TSC will be hiring 10,000 new teacher across the country. PHOTO | REBECCA OKWANY | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • At least 53 teachers are expected to be employed for primary schools in Mombasa County.
  • Over 350 candidates have applied for teaching positions in primary schools in Mombasa.
  • Panellists and candidates have cautioned to beware of fraudsters.
  • Successful candidates are expected to start teaching in the third term of 2014.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is recruiting some 10,000 teachers in various counties.

In Mombasa, TSC County director of education Ibrahim Rugut Tuesday led panellists to visit various schools to conduct interviews which will be concluded on Friday.

Last week, Mr Rugut held a meeting with principals of secondary schools, technical training colleges and TSC field officers to brief them on guidelines to be used in hiring post primary school teachers.

At least 53 teachers are expected to be employed for primary schools in the county while 20 will join secondary schools by the end of the recruitment.

SELECTION PANELS

Each selection panel for the secondary school teachers comprises of at least eight members namely the Chairman, Board of Management (BOM) who will chair the panel, two board members, the head of the institution as the secretary, a representative from TSC county directors’ office, deputy head of the institution and the subject specialist – who is a teacher specialising in the subject in which the recruit is being interviewed for.

The selection criteria will involve the secretary to the BOM compiling a list of all applicants, the selection panel vetting if each applicant is a qualified teacher, a Kenyan citizen, a trained teacher with at least two teaching subjects, is below 45 years of age and has all the required original academic and professional certificates as well as transcripts.

In cases where there will be no legally constituted BOMs, the TSC county director, head of the institution, the deputy head teacher of the institution, subject specialist, district staffing officer, TSC human resources officer and PTA Chairman will act as the panellists.

Each candidate will then be rated based on the selection score guide and the successful candidates will then fill the TSC employment form with the assistance of the head teacher.

FOLLOW GUIDLINES

Mr Rugut cautioned panellists against hiring teachers in contravention of the stated guidelines and Public Officer Ethics Act stressing that, many verification bodies will be watching to ensure the guidelines are followed.

“It is imperative for all principals to conduct the process in accordance with the guidelines so that the employment is free and fair.

“You can see from the number of applicants we got that employment is a very emotive issue such that if you play an unfair game and do not do a transparent exercise, Kenyans will hold you responsible,” he informed the panellists.

He also cautioned them to be on the lookout for fraudsters who pose as ‘connections’ deceiving the applicants that they can influence panellists to give them teaching positions.

All applicants must be registered by the TSC and those without registration certificates must produce a print-out of the application form and payment receipt as evidence of application for registration.

All the interviews will be expected to have been completed by end of the week and all employment forms sent to the TSC headquarters by August 29, 2014.

START TEACHING SEPTEMBER

Vetting of the recruits will then be done and completed by September 1, 2014 at the headquarters and thereafter the new teachers will be expected to be in their new stations by September 15, 2014.

For primary school teachers, there will be two panels.

The panel that will shortlist at the sub-county level will be made up of the staffing officer as the chair, the human resource officer as the secretary and two teacher advisory centre (TAC) tutors.

Afterwards, the shortlisted candidates’ names will be forwarded to the county level whose panel will be chaired by the TSC county director, staffing officer as the secretary, county human resource officer as a member and all the sub-county staffing officers.

The candidates will then be interviewed for their preferred positions and get hired once they pass.

Mr Rugut said that over 350 applications had been received from interested candidates for teaching positions at the primary school level in Mombasa County while the figure for the secondary schools was yet to be verified as candidates applied directly to the schools.

Secondary school teachers will be the first to be recruited this week at the respective schools.

TRANSFERS

Meanwhile, the TSC director confirmed that there would be transfers from areas with a higher concentration of teachers so as to achieve a balance of teaching staff in schools which have shortages.

He singled out Mvita Constituency as having the biggest concentration of teachers in primary schools compared to other constituencies.

“We have an excess of 70 teachers in Mvita while Likoni, Changamwe, Kisauni and other regions have a shortage.

“It is not a punitive transfer but we are transferring because they are excess,” he said stressing that some will be transferred at the start of next term and others later.

He added that school heads who had overstayed in their stations and had consistently posted poor results would also be moved to pave way for new leadership styles while those who have done well would be retained.