The scramble for 5,000 teaching jobs kicks off today as Teachers Service Commission (TSC) invites applications to fill secondary and primary school slots.
Also set to benefit are the current teachers in primary schools who have acquired degrees and hold C+ grades in their two teaching subjects.
Nancy Macharia, TSC Chief Executive Officer, said the additional teachers are needed because of the huge number of students enrolled in secondary schools due to 100 per cent transition policy.
Some 4,000 new teachers will be recruited for high schools and another 1,000 picked from the current primary schools teachers who have degrees.
For the 1,000 primary schools teachers who will be promoted, TSC will recruit new ones to replace them.
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Macharia said the graduate primary school teachers who are already in TSC payroll will be appointed to teach in secondary schools.
These graduate teachers will be required to have scored a mean grade of C+ in KCSE and a similar grade in two teaching subjects.
The recruitment is part of education sector initiatives coming in addition to the upcoming national conference on curriculum scheduled Friday.
Some Sh2 billion set aside for the hiring of the teachers in the current financial year.
The number is still bellow TSC projection to hire 12,626 teachers to manage the growing student numbers occasioned by the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools.
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said the Government has finalised plans to recruit 80,000 teachers on contract, to ease pressure from the existing staff.
On the overall shortage – other than supporting the 100 percent transition – TSC requires more money to hire 10,000 more teachers.
Macharia, however, said that for the ongoing exercise, all interested candidates have up to end of the month to submit their applications.
Macharia said that the graduate teachers who will be appointed to high schools will make their applications online.
“Interested candidates under this category should submit their applications to the secretary TSC through online platform not later than August 30,” said Macharia.
The teachers will be appointed at T-scale 7, Grade C2 and shall be posted to secondary schools where vacancies exist.
For the new recruitment, candidates interested to take up secondary teaching jobs have been directed to have minimum of diploma qualifications.
They will, however, be required to make applications to the Boards of Management of schools where vacancies have been declared.
And for those to be hired for primary schools, TSC requires them not to exceed 45 years and must posses P1 certificates.
“Interested candidates to apply to the County Director in the County where vacancies have been advertised and submit all relevant academic and professional documents,” said Macharia.
The exercise comes as TSC data revealed some counties are overstaffed.
The data shows that even with the total staffing standing at 317,010 teachers, there exists a shortage of 87,393 tutors.
The TSC document shows that there are 216,517 primary school teachers on duty and another 100,493 tutors in secondary schools.
