TSC to hire 50,000 teachers as student intake set to shoot up

The government will hire 50,000 teachers in the next four years to plug a shortage in secondary schools in view of the expected massive student intake from next month, when the free day learning programme will be rolled out.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i  said the government will review its budget for education to have more funds devoted to the employment of more teachers, especially in secondary schools.

“We are going to singularly focus on the teacher-student ratio, especially for secondary education,” Dr Matiang’i told principals of national schools and education officers at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) in Nairobi when he launched the Form One selection.

He added: “We are also exploring new ways of supporting principals and school boards so that they can acquire more teachers. We will seek your suggestions on whatever proposals we come up with.”

The government has been under pressure to recruit more teachers before rolling out the free day secondary education to safeguard quality of learning.

SHORTAGE

Government statistics show a shortage of about 50,000 teachers in secondary schools, which currently have about 88,000.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has asked for 12,696 teachers to be recruited annually for the next four years in addition to the 5,000 it hires every year. It estimates that the recruitment will cost the government Sh8.3 billion annually, with the total cost coming to Sh33.2 billion over the four years.

Next year’s funds are likely to be included in the supplementary budget, which will be tabled in Parliament early in the year.

Dr Matiang’i said the majority of the new teachers will be posted to county schools, which will enrol about 63 per cent of all candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam this year. The schools will also be given funds to upgrade their infrastructure.

TEXTBOOKS

He also announced that the Ministry of Education will from January 4 distribute standardised textbooks to all secondary schools. On admission, every Form One student will get six textbooks — one each for mathematics, Kiswahili, English, chemistry, physics and biology. The books will bear the Court of Arms on the cover.

Schools will, therefore, not be eligible to receive funds for books as the free secondary education programme is rolled out, said Dr Matiang’i.

The new distribution policy is likely to be met with opposition from book publishers, who say the directive is meant to drive them out of business.

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Dr Matiang’i said they have reviewed the collection of books in the Orange Book — the list of books approved for use in secondary schools —  and identified the core ones in each of the six critical subjects.

The list, last revised in 2003, contains six different copies for each of the subjects.

“About seven publishers, including private ones, some of whose textbooks were chosen, will provide the textbooks,” said Dr Matiang’i. “The books have been selected through a legal process.

SH3,000 FOR BOOKS

He added: “Principals and headteachers should not ask any Form One to bring any textbook to school.”

The CS accused heads of county and sub-county schools of abusing the purchase of  textbooks. The government provides each public secondary school student with Sh3,000 for books and other education materials annually.

READ: All KCPE candidates to join Form One

A report released by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) last year on the disbursement and utilisation of Free Primary Education Funds blamed headteachers, school management committees and suppliers for the failure to achieve the 1:1 book-to-pupil ratio, which currently stands at 1:5 in primary schools.

The government says it has lost about Sh18 billion between 2013 and 2016 to graft related to books purchase.

“A child in Sigalame Secondary school will now have the same book as the child in Alliance or Mang’u High at the same time. We will push this policy forward and we will not backtrack on it,” the minister said.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

The government has increased Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) capitation to cater for the total cost of day schooling to Sh22,244 per student per year from the previous Sh12,870.

The government will also meet the cost of national examinations for all candidates in public and private schools and enforce the fees guidelines.

Ms Macharia said the TSC will soon release guidelines on new administrative structures in schools that will be based on enrolment.

“As you get a higher enrolment, TSC will make sure our headteachers are not burdened and therefore, the need for a new administrative structure,” she said.

Dr Matiang'i announced that management boards of schools sharing the same compounds will be dissolved and a new one created to run both institutions.

Such schools, he said, will now be run by an overall principal with a deputy for primary and another for secondary school.

“Performance in a number of schools that have both primary and secondary schools in the same environment have often been beset with legitimacy squabbles and turf wars which tend to compromise teaching and learning programmes. We intend to get rid of that by creating harmony and synergy in the utilisation of resources and infrastructure facilities, some of which lie defunct because resources are duplicated,” he said.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary-general Wilson Sossion said they would review the decision to dissolve the boards and issue a comprehensive statement.

TABLING REPORT

Further consultations will be made between other stakeholders including the Kenya Primary School Heads Association and Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha)

“We would like to know how that decision was made and I will be tabling a report before my union’s leadership and thereafter comment on it. It will be premature to comment at the moment,” Mr Sossion said.

Kessha chairman Indimuli Kahi supported the directive saying it is important that education institutions in the same compound be managed by a single team. He said such institutions often disagreed on whether or not to put up additional infrastructure on shared land since both boards claim ownership of such assets.

“It is pointless to have different boards giving different directives. We are in full support of the directive by the CS,” Mr Indimuli said.