Questions have been raised about how the Public Service Commission (PSC) recruited Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QUASOs), whom the Ministry of Education (MoE) later deployed to field offices.
Educationists are concerned that MoE conducted irregular appointments of over 110 QUASOs from the middle of last year to early this year without advertising or interviewing the candidates.
Understandably, those offered the jobs were mainly drawn from the teaching fraternity, and top politicians and influential government figures dished out the appointment letters.
A senior Government official at the MoE, who could not be interviewed for fear of reprisals, confirmed the appointments and postings of the QUASOs to address the shortage of officers in the field.
“It is true the Ministry hired the officers to address the shortage of QUASOs in the field. We have gaps in the officers at our sub-counties, and these positions must be filled. We, however, found the number of people hired to be very high,” the officer said.
The senior officer, who is privy to the goings-on at the MoE headquarters, admitted that, indeed, the Government didn’t advertise for the jobs and conducted no interviews before the deployment of the said staff.
“The Education CS, by law, declares the vacancies and notifies the Public Service Commission (PSC) to publicly announce the positions, shortlist candidates, interview them and appoint the officers by issuing them with letters. The Government recruitment agency decided otherwise,” said the MoE insider.
Those aware of these developments have called upon the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Authority (EACC) to act quickly and investigate how the teachers were picked and made QUASOs without following the formal procedure.
Their claims stem from claims that from July 2024 to February this year, MoE, through politicians and some senior government officials, secretly distributed appointment letters to teachers who were either their relatives or political cronies to join MoE as QUASOs.
In an attempt to substantiate the claims, Education News conducted a fact-finding mission in several counties to determine whether officers had recently been hired as QUASOS.
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The findings revealed that some teachers had joined the QUASO department courtesy of top politicians and influential forces in the Government.
The alleged illegalities seem to have caused much anxiety among the existing officers in the QUASO docket under MoE when they realised that some new arrivals were supposedly appointed to higher positions than they were.
“It kills our morale to see teachers from the class being fronted by politicians to come and supervise us in the field. To further dampen our spirit is the reality that no recent advertisements or interviews were done for the appointments,” said a senior QUASO from the Eastern region.
It is further argued that some unmentioned Members of Parliament in the Education Committee were taking advantage of the available (QUASOs vacancies at the MoE to reward their relatives and cronies.
“This habit of politicians to bypass the law to reward their supporters is total impunity and must be stopped. Experienced officers are demoralised by such actions. How do you impose inexperienced teachers and other recruits on experienced officers, and how do you even have the temerity to hire them in higher job groups? quipped the furious QUASO.
Recently, the image of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was put under tight scrutiny after some Members of Parliament were filmed dishing out employment forms at their constituencies.
This is happening when the Commission subjected other Kenyans to a competitive process in recruiting teachers. The public had questioned how those well-connected were being offered free employment forms while others were being put through rigorous tests.
It is worth noting that MoE has not advertised officer vacancies for the past four years yet has gone ahead to make replacements. Earlier, the government announced a freeze on employment within the civil service.
By our reporter
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