The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced plans to employ 25,000 teachers on permanent basis and 12,000 on internship in the next financial year to manage the double transition to secondary schools.
In a budget policy statement presented to the National Assembly’s Committee on Education, TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia said the commission plans to spent Sh10.75 billion to recruit permanent teachers and Sh2.4 billion to hire interns.
Due to the implementation of the competency based curriculum (CBC), learners in Grade Six will transition to junior secondary in January 2023.
Standard Eight candidates will also be expected to join secondary schools, causing the double transition.
“The current Grade Four and Standard Six pupils will transit to junior secondary and Form One, respectively, in 2023. This will lead to higher enrolment which will call for additional teachers,” says Ms Macharia.
TSC has been recruiting teachers every year to address a recurrent shortage.
Due to lack of funding, the 100 percent transition policy from Standard Eight to Form One worsened the teacher-learner ratio in secondary schools. There is a shortage of 49,750 teachers in secondary schools.
The commission planned to recruit 12,626 teachers per year to bridge the gap in its 2019-2023 strategic plan and the plan is still being executed. More than 10,000 teachers leave the serve via retirement and natural attrition every year.
According to TSC chairperson Lydia Nzomo’s exit report, the teacher shortage stood at 61,671 in post-primary institutions before implementation of the 100-percent transition policy.
The country required 50,504 teachers—12,626 per year—to successfully implement the policy.
From 2017/2018 to 2019/2020, the government recruited 18,700 teachers to manage the transition but the shortage jumped to 80,849 in secondary schools.
The shortage in primary school during the same period has slightly decreased from 40,807 to 36,777 by end of 2020.
TSC has only employed 23,700 teachers since 2017 against its 50,504 target. During her farewell dinner on Friday last week, Ms Nzomo asked the incoming team to follow up on the proposal to parliament to employ more teachers.
“I urge the new board to follow up of TSC proposals to parliament for budgetary allocation to employ 25,000 teachers in the next financial year,” she said.
Mrs Macharia said the commission presented a budget proposal of Sh300.503 billion last year to finance various programmes but was allocated Sh281.704 billion, according to the 2021/2022 parliamentary draft budget.
Further, Ms Macharia stated that other key programmes in the 2021/22 financial year include recruitment of 5,000 additional teachers at a cost of Sh2.5 billion and 6,000 intern teachers at a cost of Sh1.2 billion.
Ms Macharia highlighted the need to train this category of teachers to enable them specialise in senior secondary schools.
In the statement, the commission told the parliamentary committee that it has plans to spent Sh1 billion in training of teachers on Competency based curriculum (CBC) at a cost of Sh1billion.
A further, 25,000 teachers will be trained on School Based Teacher Support System (SBTSS) under the Secondary Education Quality Improvement (SEQIP) Project.
TSC also plans to build a county office at a cost of Sh45 million as well as coaching and mentorship programmes for 25,000 teachers.
