MPs want 5,000 teachers hired and 31,000 promoted

Members of Parliament have opened a way for the hiring of an additional 5,000 teachers. The MPs yesterday urged the Budget and Appropriations Committee to allocate Sh2.25 billion for hiring the teachers.

This will bring the total number of teachers who will be hired in the next financial year to 10,000. National Assembly’s Education Committee Vice Chairman Julius Melly (Tinderet) said the country had a total shortage of 80,000 teachers.

“This gap ought to be filled to allow quality education for our school children,” said Melly at a meeting with the powerful budget committee, which has the final say on budget allocations.

The Teachers Service Commission had wanted to recruit 20,000 teachers, but the National Treasury refused to release the money for all the 20,000. It only allowed Sh2.3 billion for 5,000 teachers.

“The teacher-pupil ratio in this country is highly skewed. If you have that money it will be very prudent to recruit so that you bridge the gap, now that we know we need 80,000 teachers,” said Melly.
The House team had called for an emergency meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Education Fred Matiang’i, Teachers Service Commission and the National Treasury’s Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to address the shortage.

“The committee noted the need for a meeting at the earliest opportunity so as to deliberate and come up with concrete measures to tackle the issue,” he said.

PROMOTION A PRIORITY

The price tag of a one-off recruitment of 20,000 teachers is Sh7.5 billion. The MPs also said promotion of teachers was also a priority. They said Sh2.3 billion had been set aside for the promotion of 31,000 teachers. The money for promotion is budgeted for because promotions mean enhanced pay package for each of those promoted. At least 52,000 teachers are due for promotions.

“We asked the TSC to do this so as to improve the morale of our teachers, so that we stop the acrimony between teachers and the TSC and avert more strikes, more so now that we are going to the election,” said Melly.

The Education Committee also insisted that the retired teachers need to be paid their arrears, which have been pending for a long time. The House team said the Government had been hiding behind a legal technicality regarding the employment terms for  the teachers, and that every time money was allocated, it was usually not spent.

“This is a very thorny and sad case. The retired teachers are the ones who taught a majority of us. They are ailing, they are old they need a lot of attention. Some of them have died,” said Melly.