By Obegi Malack
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has employed a total of 36,843 teachers in the last three years, data from the commission shows.
It employed 18,258 primary school teachers and 18,585 secondary school teachers.
For primary schools, in the Financial Year (FY) 2018/19 the commission employed 3,358 teachers, in the FY 2019/20, it employed 7,307 teachers and in the FY 2020/21 it employed 7,593 teachers.
For secondary schools, in the FY 2018/19 the commission employed 3,358 teachers, in the FY 2019/20, it employed 5,166 teachers and in the FY 2020/21 it employed 5,531 teachers.
In the FY 2020/21 appointments, Bungoma County was the major beneficiary with 327 primary school teachers followed by Kakamega with 320 teachers. Kisii County came third with 287 teachers. The bottom counties were Samburu and Marsabit counties that received 46 teachers each.
For secondary schools, Bungoma county also received the highest number of teachers (597) followed by Kitui county, 584 teachers.
The Commission appointed a total of 11 Head teachers in Teachers Training Colleges. In the year 2018/19 it appointed four teachers, three in the year 2019/20 and four in the year 2020/21.
TSC also appointed a total of 3,149 Head teachers for primary schools. In the year 2018/19 it appointed 642 teachers, 1,475 in the year 2019/20 and 1,032 in the year 2020/21. Secondary schools benefited from appointment of 554 head teachers in the year 2020/21.
In July this year, TSC advertised 5,000 teaching vacancies majorly to counter the existing teacher shortage which currently stands at 114,581 teachers and to support the government policy on attaining 100 percent transition of learners from primary to secondary schools.
Earlier in April, the Commission’s CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia said the National Treasury had allocated Ksh.2.5 billion to TSC for the recruitment of the 5,000 permanent teachers and Ksh.1.2 billion for the hiring of 6,000 of their intern counterparts.
Of the 5,000 vacancies, 3,972 will be recruited to serve in secondary schools, 28 in teacher training colleges and 1,000 posts have been reserved for primary school teachers.
The Commission also declared 8,230 vacancies to replace teachers who exited service through attrition. 6,539 posts will be for primary and 1,691 posts for secondary schools.
