TSC is expected to hire over 5,000 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms and another 10,000 interns in the next couple of months.
Parliamentary Recommendations
This comes after the Budget and Appropriation Committee submitted its report to the National Assembly. The report recommended an allocation of Sh2billion for the hiring of 5,000 new teachers as opposed to the commission’s demand for Sh15.4 billion to hire over 25,000 teachers. The government is also availing $1.2 billion to be used in recruiting 10,000 interns.
TSC expects to fix the shortage of teachers following the 100% transition program initiated by President Uhuru’s administration.
Under-staffing in Kenyan Public Schools
Currently, there are only 318,000 teachers serving millions of learners across the country. According to TSC, there is a shortage of approximately 96,345 teachers in the country. Primary schools lack 38,054 teachers; while secondary schools require 58,291 new teachers to meet its staffing requirements.
According to TSC CEO Nancy Macharia, the current teachers are overworking as they try to meet the demands of the competency based school curriculum. In its 2019-2023 strategic plan, TSC is hoping to spend over sh82 billion to hire more than 100,000 teachers. Too address teachers’ shortages, schools have hired about 80,000 teachers through the Board of Management (BOM).
Our Position
Since the numbers are not static, teacher shortages will continue to rise. And if the current rate of recruitment is not increased, the problem of teacher shortages in public schools will persist.
