The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was scrutinised yesterday over issues surrounding the recruitment, promotion, and deployment of teachers nationwide.
While appearing before the National Assembly’s Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee, TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia defended the Commission’s operations, emphasising that teacher deployment is guided by fairness and specific needs in various areas.
Macharia reminded lawmakers that Parliament passed the motion requiring newly hired teachers to be posted to their home sub-counties.
“You are the lawmakers. We distribute teachers where there are deficits. But there was a public outcry, and Parliament passed a motion for teachers to be returned to their localities. We complied,” she told the committee.
MPs, however, pushed for a different approach, suggesting that while recruitment should happen locally, deployment ought to be nationwide to promote fairness and national cohesion.
“Let recruitment be local, but deployment national. That way, we can democratise opportunities across the board,” one MP proposed.
The issue of jobless trained teachers is also prominent. Committee chair Karemba Muchangi questioned why thousands of qualified graduates remain unemployed despite teacher shortages in certain counties.
Macharia explained that introducing the new curriculum had eliminated Standards 6, 7, and 8, resulting in a surplus of primary school teachers in some areas.
“After curriculum changes removed Standards 6, 7, and 8, we had surplus teachers in some primary schools. We’ve advised against training more primary teachers, yet colleges continue,” she said.
Lawmakers also raised concerns over slow and uneven teacher promotions. TSC disclosed that it requires Ksh5 billion annually to address career progression stagnation.
“With only one billion shillings, we can promote just 6,000 teachers. We need five billion annually to address stagnation fully,” Macharia said.
MPs pressed further, citing cases of regional imbalances in promotions. Tiaty MP William Kamket claimed his constituency had seen minimal advancement. “We had only five teachers promoted out of 25,000. If divided equally across the 290 constituencies, we should have gotten at least 80,” Kamket said.
Another point of contention was the teachers’ health insurance under the MINET scheme. TSC admitted that delays in Treasury disbursements and challenges with moving to the new Social Health Authority (SHA) had worsened the situation.
“The contract implementation committee is monitoring MINET closely. But due to exchequer delays, even our payments have lagged. Transitioning to SHA wasn’t possible because they couldn’t absorb our numbers,” said Macharia.
Despite the tough questioning, TSC maintained that it is doing its best under financial constraints and remains committed to enhancing teacher welfare.
The Commission urged Parliament to review existing policies and increase funding to resolve challenges such as stalled promotions, staffing disparities, and health insurance issues.
By Joseph Mambili
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