Teachers Service Commission has announced an all-year-round recruitment of teachers in North Eastern region.
This follows the interdiction of teachers from the area who had refused to report on duty.
The teachers drawn from Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties cited increased cases of insecurity as reason for desertion of duty.
The hundreds of teachers held protests at TSC headquarters in Nairobi seeking transfers to other parts of the country.
TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia yesterday said investigations against the interdicted teachers is still ongoing.
"Interdicted teachers are not fired, but rather, are facing suspension over certain allegations, while investigations take place. The due process is being followed,” she said.
Macharia said TSC will continue to recruit more teachers for the North Eastern region throughout the year.
“We recruit teachers for North Eastern throughout the year to replace those who have left. North Eastern is the only place that we do not close recruitment of teachers,” she said.
North Eastern region needs more than 2,000 teachers to fill the gaps in public primary and secondary schools, reports say.
In 2014, at least 28 teachers were killed after their bus was ambushed by suspected al-Shabab militants while travelling to Nairobi for the December holidays.
Macharia said recruitment of teachers happens at the Sub-county level to encourage more locals in the regions to take up teaching jobs.
The TSC boss spoke in Mombasa after supervising the distribution of KCSE examination papers.
She said Kenya still has a shortage of teachers to teach Islamic Religious Education, and Physics subjects.
“It is not that we do not have teachers to recruit, but it is due to inadequate resources. If we get adequately funded, we will recruit more teachers to fill those gaps,” Macharia said.
She said a total of 101,376 secondary school teachers will administer KCSE examination.
“Only secondary school teachers will be allowed to be invigilators, supervisors and centre managers for KCSE. No primary school teacher or any other person is allowed,” Macharia said.
She said this directive is in compliance with the regulations given by the Kenya National Examination Council.
Macharia said all teachers, who are administering the examinations were vetted by TSC.
The examinations kicked off smoothly in all six counties of the coast region, despite the heavy rains that were experienced last week.
“We are hoping for the best and everything has been put in place to ensure the exams distribution succeeds countrywide,” she said.
Macharia said a multi-agency team is working around the country to ensure the examination period is smooth even in those areas that are not easily accessible.
“The government is ready for those areas that are not accessible. We have choppers on standby to airlift these exams. So far we have no had any challenges, but in case of any problems, we are ready,” she said.
