By Staff Reporter
Teachers Service Commission has announced a massive recruitment drive of more than 11,500 teachers in public secondary and primary schools to address the biting shortage experienced across the country.
This would be good news to the more than 290,000 qualified but unemployed teachers as they will have a chance to be recruited on permanent and pensionable terms.
A number of the teachers employed by Board of Management and in private schools have gone for months without pay since the closure of schools due to Covid-19.
In an advert appearing in a local daily, the Commission said 4,000 teachers will be recruited to address the 100 per cent transition experienced in secondary schools.
To qualify for secondary schools, prospective candidates must be Kenyan citizen, holder of at least a diploma in education and must be registered teacher with the Commission.
Others are 1,000 teachers to be recruited in primary schools.
Potential candidates must be Kenyan citizens, P1 certificate holders, and must be registered teachers with the Commission.
“The Commission is also advertising 5,474 vacancies for primary and 1,100 vacancies for secondary schools to replace teachers who have exited service,” the advert stated.
Every year, a number of teachers exit the service either through retirement or natural attrition and the Commission makes the necessary replacement.
Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications online through the Commission’s website.
“Successful candidates will be posted to serve in any part of the country and not necessarily in the county where they were recruited.
To qualify for appointment on permanent and pensionable terms of service, a candidate should be eligible to serve for a minimum period of ten continuous years, effective from the date of first appointment as required by law.
The commission’s 2020/2021 recruitment guides should apply and preference will be given to candidates who have not previously been recruited by the TSC.
In the 2020/2021 financial year, Treasury CS Ukur Yattani announced the allocation of Sh2 billion for the recruitment of 5,000 teachers to increase the teacher to student ratio.
He also announced that the government had set aside about Sh2.4 billion to recruit 10,000 intern teachers, which the Commission is yet to announce.
By the end of 2019, the Commission estimated that the country had a shortage of 104,087 teachers across public primary and secondary schools.
Commission CEO Nancy Macharia estimated that the country needed 40,000 interns at a total cost of Sh4.8 billion and normal recruitment of 25,000 teachers at a total cost of Sh15.4 billion.
