TSC to hire interns to alleviate teachers' burden

Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia and Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha chat during the release of the 2019 KCPE results at the Kenya National Examinations Council headquarters in Nairobi on November 18, 2019. All the learners who sat the exam will join secondary school. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Prof Magoha said the Ministry has already done a mapping of the vacancies in all the schools that will admit the candidates.
  • The TSC is determined to adequately retool teachers to be able to handle the competence-based curriculum in primary school.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on Monday acknowledged that the 100 per cent transition from public primary to secondary schools is putting a strain on teachers, with an increased workload.

The TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said that, to address the crisis, the commission recruited 5,000 secondary school teachers this year and is in the process of hiring 10,000 interns.

“We are also replacing those who leave through natural attrition on a continuous basis. The TSC beseeches our teachers to do all they can to ensure high quality learning for our children,” the TSC boss said during the release of this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) at the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) headquarters in Nairobi.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said President Uhuru Kenyatta had directed that the ministry ensures that every child who sat the KCPE examination is admitted to secondary school under the policy.

NEW CLASSROOMS

Prof Magoha said the government’s aim is to ensure that all Kenyan children get at least secondary education.

“I wish to assure the country that the Ministry has put in place measures to fulfil the 100 per cent transition policy in 2020. All the candidates whose results will be released today should expect to be admitted to Form One,” he said.

He added that the Ministry has already done a mapping of the vacancies in all schools that will admit the candidates.

He said the government, together with development partners under the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project, will rollout a Sh8 billion programme to build classrooms and laboratories in 110 sub-counties in 30 counties next year.

“These classes will ease the pressure on the existing facilities in our secondary schools,” he added.

BETTER PAY

Meanwhile, Ms Macharia said the commission recognises that teachers need better terms of service.

“As a result, we have already initiated the process of negotiating the 2021-2025 CBA. We hope we can conclude the CBA in good time to ensure our teachers can benefit from improved terms,” she said.

She added that TSC is determined to adequately retool teachers to be able to handle the competence-based curriculum (CBC) in primary school.

“Starting December 2, 2019, the commission will retool 100,900 teachers on CBC delivery at a cost of Sh580 million. By the end of the training, the commission will have trained 228,000 on CBC in 2019. We thank our teachers for embracing this exercise of continuing teacher development,” she said.