Over 600 teachers needed in Teso North to bridge gap – MP Kaunya

Teso North MP Oku Kaunya wants the Teachers Service Commission to post more teachers in the sub-county to address the current shortage.

The lawmaker said there is currently a shortage of about 600 teachers – both primary and secondary school in the area.

Addressing the shortage will go a long way in improving pupils and student performance in the sub-county, the ODM MP said.

“In our primary schools, we have a shortage of over 300 teachers,” Kaunya said.

“In secondary schools, we have a shortage of 292 teachers. The next time TSC employs teachers, the teachers’ employer should remember Teso North so that we get more teachers in our learning institutions.”

Kaunya was speaking when he hosted Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu in Teso North.

The CS was in the subcounty to oversee the administration of KCSE exams.

The two visited Kolanya Girls National School and KMTC Teso Campus.

“We have many youths who have been trained as teachers but are yet to get employed,” the MP said.

“When that time to employ teachers comes, don’t forget Teso North.”

In May the government said it needs to recruit more than 111,000 teachers to bridge the current tutors shortage that has compromised the quality of education in public schools.

Teachers Service Commission chief executive Nancy Macharia however, said the acute shortage that the agency seeks to bridge in the next five years is subject to availability of funds.

“To address the teacher shortage, the commission requires to recruit 111,870 teachers over a period of five years,” Macharia told the Senate’s National Cohesion and Integration Committee.

The shortage comprises 47,329 at the primary level and 64,541 in post-primary institutions.

The revelations emerged even as senators called for a return of the delocalization policy that was stopped by the current regime.

The lawmakers argued that the scrapping of the policy has starved certain regions in the country of teachers.

The TSC chief executive revealed that as of April 2023, the commission had affected a total of 15,824 transfers of teachers to their preferred counties.

Macharia said the commission requires an annual budgetary allocation of Sh14.8 billion for the next five years to bridge the teachers’ gap.

This translates to about Sh74 billion.

She said the commission has over the years implemented strategies that are geared towards optimal teacher staffing.

The measures, however, she said are pegged on among other factors, budgetary provision, demand and supply of teachers, and existing establishment.

The strategies include annual requests for budgetary allocation for the recruitment of additional teachers, engagement of teacher interns, and recruitment of teachers on contractual terms.

The commission also employs the strategy of immediate replacement of teachers who leave service through natural attrition and implements the adoption of a decentralized demand-driven approach to recruitment.