Teachers’ fresh registration process kicks off today

Finer details of the impending fresh registration of teachers will be laid bare today when the employer meets Council of Governors, National Treasury and Public Service officials in Nairobi.

Teachers' unions and associations, religious organisations, development partners, officials of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and persons with disabilities have also been invited to the stakeholders meeting.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) road map on the biometric registration says today will mark the start of a two-month planning ahead of the pilot scheduled for May.

The document says that all teachers will have to undergo fresh listing to verify their distribution, utilisation and teaching specialisation in all public educational institutions.

The registration will also help TSC to update the existing information on teachers’ bio data and to validate the teacher requirement in all public schools and teacher training colleges by size and learner enrolment.

Most important will be the unmasking of ghost staff who have over the years drawn salaries from the commission's payroll.

Data presented to TSC in Parliament last week said the commission has a total of 305,568 teachers in primary and secondary schools.

Of these, some 211, 046 teachers are presently teaching in primary schools with 94,522 in secondary schools.

The biometric registration road map, however, estimates that the current total number of teachers stands at 316,662.

From May 11 to15, the commission will carry out a piloting phase in Uasin Gishu, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Nyeri, Kilifi, Kitui and Garissa counties to test the registration kits.