TSC hires 8,000 tutors in bid to plug shortage

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started posting more than 8,000 new recruits, with most of them set to report to schools today.

The 8,090 teachers are to support a new government policy to have all primary school leavers enrolled into secondary schools.

Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said 7,817 teachers had already received their appointment letters, while 273 had been vetted but their appointments were pending due to lack of requirements as per checklist.

“A total of 903 teachers have received their appointment letters to teach in primary schools while 6,914 will teach in secondary schools,” said Mrs Macharia.

The new teachers are supposed to plug a severe staffing shortage in public secondary and primary schools — estimated to be 155,000, said Mrs Macharia in a brief dated August 31.

RECRUITED 8090 TEACHERS

The TSC advertised for 8,700 positions, but has only managed to recruit 8090, which is less by 610 teachers. A total of 7,672 were to be sent to the secondary schools while 1,000 were to be posted to primary.

The commission had asked the government for Sh8.3 billion to recruit 12,626 secondary teachers annually for four years, translating into 50,504 teachers to support the transition, but the government only gave Sh5 billion.

The TSC is also recruiting 4,683 teachers to replace those who have exited service through natural attrition. Mrs Macharia said 4,245 teachers would be posted to primary schools while 438 teachers would be deployed to secondary schools and colleges. The teachers are replacing those who left in July, this year, alone.

According to the TSC, there are close to 290,000 trained teachers who are yet to be employed.

ADDRESS SHORTAGE

Mrs Macharia said 20,665 primary schools need 40,000 instructors. “This would translate in hiring 8,000 primary school teachers every year,” Mrs Macharia said.

TSC had also asked the Treasury for Sh16 billion to recruit 68,000 intern teachers as a temporary measure to address shortages in schools.

“With the recruitment of interns, we will not be conducting annual recruitment as we will be able to employ them on permanent terms where vacancies arise and then hire more interns,” Mrs Macharia said.

In Primary schools, Bungoma County has the highest shortage at 3,523 teachers, followed by Kakamega (3,422), Kitui (2,571) while Narok requires 2,162 educators.

Nairobi County needs only 87 primary school teachers, while Lamu requires 44. Isiolo County has a shortage of 12 teachers, Mrs Macharia said.

“The commission has put in place a mechanism that ensures the replacement of teachers who exit the service,” Mrs Macharia added.

Meanwhile, the TSC has directed teachers who will be involved in the management of national examinations this year to be vigilant and uphold the ethical and integrity standards governing the teaching profession.