Bungoma, Kakamega, Kitui and Narok have been listed by the Teachers Service Commission as counties facing an acute shortage of primary school teachers.
In a document presented by TSC acting chief executive officer Nancy Macharia, she said public primary schools need an extra 39,574 teachers to meet the teacher-learner ratio.
The report was presented to the parliamentary committee on Education on Thursday.
Bungoma has the highest number of teacher shortage with a 3,523 deficit, closely followed by Kakamega with 3,422, Kitui ( 2,571 ), Narok
( 2,162 ), Nakuru
( 1,983 )and Homa Bay ( 1,921 ).
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Isiolo, Lamu and Nairobi counties are the least understaffed counties and require 12, 44 and 87 teachers respectively to fill the deficit.
The current pupil-teacher ratio in public primary schools is 56:1 against the recommended 40:1.
According to TSC, each school should have one teacher per class and an additional 2.5 per cent of the number of teachers.
This means if a class has eight streams, it will have eight teachers for each stream and an extra 20 teachers for the additional number, making a total of 28 teachers.
Macharia attributed the shortage to poor funding by the exchequer.
“The shortage is a national challenge. The commission wholly relies on funds appropriated by Parliament to recruit new teachers to ellevate the shortage,” Macharia said.
The TSC said staffing of primary schools is based on class size which ideally should accommodate 50 learners.
Macharia said there is regional disparity in the distribution of teachers across the country.
“Our endeavour is to achieve equity, however with challenges of insecurity mostly in the arid and semi-arid counties, court cases by teachers contesting transfers and hostile treatment by host communities, there has been regional disparity,” she said.
Speaking to the Star, Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion expressed concern the teacher-student ratio in Kenya worsens every year.
He suggested the teacher deficit in primary school was higher than numbers provided by TSC.
“Government needs to train teachers in areas it has identified as hot-spots for conflict and terror over the years to meet the shortage. The remaining deficit can be done over a period of three years by mass employment of teachers,” Sossion said.
During the financial year 2017-18, the commission appropriated Sh500 million for recruitment of 8000 teachers.
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