Hopes high for 8,000 unemployed teachers as TSC announces fresh recruitment in January

Teachers' Service Commission (TSC) CEO Nancy Macharia before Senate Labour committee.[File,Standard]

Unemployed teachers in the country have a reason to smile this Christmas as government announced plans to hire 8,000 new teachers in January. 

The exercise will benefit 5,862 teachers for deployment in primary schools, while 2,824 slots are reserved for secondary schools.

Junior secondary schools, however, will see a much smaller allocation, with only 21 teachers earmarked for this category.

The Standard has learned that junior secondary schools, though receiving the fewest slots from the fresh round of recruitment, are set to benefit significantly from a separate initiative to recruit 20,000 intern teachers.

This move is aimed at addressing teacher shortage in junior school ahead of rollout of Grade 9 when schools reopen in January.

The recruitment comes at a time when Kenya’s education system is under immense pressure, particularly following the transition to junior secondary under the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) framework. 

The employment of the interns and tutors will also correspond with the TSC plans to confirm an additional 46,000 teachers in January, providing job security and stability for many educators currently employed on internship or probationary terms.

Despite the recruitment plans, teacher shortage remains a pressing issue, with recent statistics by TSC indicating a deficit of over 110,000 teachers across the country while the number of unemployed teachers surpassed 380,000.

In October, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) said it received 314,117 applications for 46,000 advertised teacher posts between October 1 and 8.

TSC CEO Nancy Macharia, appearing before the Parliamentary Education Committee, said of these applications, 93,646 were for primary teacher posts against the 6,000 advertised, while 144, 177 were for junior secondary teachers against the 39,550 posts advertised.

TSC further received 76,294 applications for the 450 secondary school teacher posts it advertised, Macharia told MPs.

While appearing in Parliament previously,  the TSC boss said the huge shortfall had been occasioned by budgetary challenges and emergence of new schools.

This is even as the commission announced a fresh round of promotion targeting 24,000 tutors and which will be conducted in two phases.

In the first phase, 5,690 teachers, primarily those in acting capacities as school heads and deputies, will be promoted. TSC has already advertised these positions. The second phase, slated for next year, will see an additional 19,000 teachers promoted.

The announcement was made during this year's Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Annual Delegates Conference in Mombasa.

"Currently, the commission is processing applications for the 5,690 advertised posts and will shortly advertise another 19,000 vacancies for promotion," TSC stated.

According to the commission, 168,389 teachers were promoted through the Common Cadre system between 2018 and 2023, with an additional 73,902 securing competitive promotions.

The Common Cadre promotion system covers grades B5 and C1 for P1 certificate holders, C1-C2 for diploma teachers, and C2-C3 for graduate teachers.

Educators in these categories are automatically promoted after three years of satisfactory service.