The government is hiring 5,000 teachers in public primary and secondary schools countrywide.
The recruitment is part of an ongoing campaign to plug a massive teacher shortage which stands at about 95,000 and to support a national drive to achieve 100 per cent transition rate from primary to secondary schools.
According to a report by Daily Nation, Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive, Nancy Macharia said on Wednesday (14.08.19) that 4,000 new teachers will be posted to secondary schools and the rest to primary schools.
Applicants for secondary schools must possess a minimum of a diploma in education or a Bachelor’s in Education degree while those seeking primary jobs must have a minimum of a P1 certificate.
They must have a teacher registration certificate and must send in their applications to county TSC directors and school’s boards of management (BOM) by August 30. They must not be older than 45 years and should have a professional certificate.
Primary schools, which have about 10 million pupils, are short of 38,054 teachers, while secondary schools, which are grappling with a huge enrolment surge driven by the government’s campaign to achieve a 100 per cent transition from primary, have vacancies for 58,291.
This means that the basic education segment has a deficit of 96,345 teachers, according to TSC figures. Polytechnics and Technical and Vocational Education Training institutions, which hold more than 180,000 trainees, have a shortfall of 5,000 tutors, while universities will lose more than 4,000 lecturers if the government implements a policy outlawing master’s degree holders from lecturing.
In its 2019-2023 strategic plan, the TSC says it plans to recruit 12,000 teachers yearly for the next five years at a cost of Sh73.7 billion. It estimates the shortage will have risen to 61,671 in secondary and 34,941 in primary schools by 2023.
In primary schools, the declining demand is attributed to continuous teacher recruitment over the years. At the secondary level, the projected shortage between 2019 and 2023 is premised on the assumption that the government will sustain the provision of 12,626 teachers per year.
As a measure to cope with the shortages, schools boards of management have engaged approximately 80,000 teachers in public schools but some may be unqualified.
In June, the National Treasury allocated the commission Sh3.2 billion for recruitment.
