The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been directed to prioritize older teachers during recruitment to address the persistent concerns of bias in the recruitment process.
They also urged the teachers’ employer to submit data on all registered teachers aged above 40 years, in a move aimed at addressing persistent concerns of bias in the recruitment process.
This follows concerns raised by members of the National Assembly Education committee that TSC has been neglecting a significant pool of experienced and qualified teachers simply because they are over 45 years old.
A 2019 ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court found the age restriction by TSC as discriminated and in violation of the right to equal opportunity.
“Give us data on registered teachers with registration certificates by the TSC that are over the age of 40 years so that we quantify and check against resources that are needed for their recruitment,” committee chairperson Julius Melly told TSC senior officers during session to consider the budget estimates for the 2025/2026 financial year.
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The TSC team led by Finance Director Cheptumo Ayabei stated that a candidate’s age was a major consideration during the recruitment process, but the legislators were not convinced.
“The age factor is given prominence under the recruitment guidelines, such that a person who has stayed unemployed for long and is also older is given 30 more marks,” Ayabei said.
The committee maintained that any teacher can be recruited up to and including those who are two years to remain there because it is not their fault that they were not recruited before they hit 45 years.
Prior to the recruitment of the older teachers, the MPs said that such tutors should be refereed by the schools in which they have been teaching to ensure fairness.
Last year, the government converted 39,550 junior school teachers from contract to permanent terms, while an additional 8,378 primary school tutors were redeployed to teach in junior schools.
But despite these efforts, a hiring teacher shortage persists in the 20,000 junior schools, with TSC data showing a deficit of 72,422.
The shortage of staff in schools has resulted in over-stretched teachers, overcoming in classrooms and a lack of subject specialists required for proper implementation of the competency-based education system.
We have engaged the Treasury and maybe because of fiscal space and constraints, the indication is that we are being given money to recruit interns and the conversion will not happen,” Cheptumo said.
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In the financial year starting July the officials said Treasury had not allocated funds for conversion of intern teachers to permanent terms, posing a challenge in the hiring of the teachers aged over 45 years.
TSC has been allocated Ksh357.1 billion in the financial year starting July with a number of key areas not being funded or underfunded, including teachers’ medical cover, handling of disciplinary cases and the 2025-2039 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The current CBA is set to lapse at the end of June to pay away for the new one. The Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) recently hired that it had proposed an upward review of hardship allowances, among other benefits.
This comes on the back of plans by government to implement a 2019 report aimed at rationalizing hardship zones to save Sh6 billion annually across the public service by reducing payments from Ksh25 billion to Ksh19 billion.
The review of hardship areas means that the monetary benefits given to civil servants and specifically teachers in those areas will be at stake.
KUPPET, Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers have since accused government of sidelining stakeholders in the decision that could potentially deter the education sector.
Teachers form the single largest group of government employees, with thousands of them stationed in areas currently gazetted as hardship zones and hence earning a hardship allowance that is equivalent to 30 per cent of their basic salary.
By Cornelius korir
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