TSC to recruit 30,000 teachers for junior secondary

The Teachers commission has said it will prioritise recruitment of Junior Secondary teachers in the January mass recruitment.

The presidential working party on education reforms had in their preliminary report directed the recruitment of 30,000 new teachers for the Junior Secondary is expected to begin in January.

TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said they were already facing a deficit of 68,000 teachers in secondary schools across the country.

She spoke in Mombasa after supervising the opening of exam papers for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education at the Nyali DCC office on Friday. 

“We shall use some of the new 30,000 teachers for Junior Secondary and some for primary schools, the rest will go to the 8-4-4 students. These are the modalities we are working on so that in January we recruit these teachers,” Macharia said.

“We already have a deficit of 116,000 teachers in the country with the figure at secondary schools standing at 68,000."

The CEO said  TSC has been employing 5,000 teachers annually adding that the recruitment of 30,000 teachers in January will go a long way to reduce the deficit.

In March, the government announced the training of 60,000 teachers on the new Competency Based Curriculum for Junior secondary.

Macharia said the trainings were halted for a while to allow for transition of government after the August election.

She however, said they will resume immediately with much attention on Grade 7 pupils.

“We had already began training teachers because initially Junior Secondary was to be domiciled in secondary school but we didn’t finish," the CEO said.

“Now that new government has settled in, we shall resume the trainings starting with Grade 7 teaches.” 

Macharia said the trainings will be phased because the time required for the training is not enough.

She however said they are going to engage with all relevant education stakeholders, to give teachers more time for training and be well equipped.

“They (teachers) don’t find new things. They are already teachers but they just need to be inducted a little bit into what is expected of them,” Macharia said.

Some 884,263 students are sitting this year’s KCSE exam.

Macharia said they deployed about 10,416 centre managers as well as 11,332 supervisors and 49,127 invigilators country wide.

“For the teachers involved, they have been veted and are now expected to administer and ensure credible examination,” she said.

Education Cabinet secretary Ezekiel Machogu on Monday said the country that the government is committed to deliver credible national examinations for Grade 6, Class 8 and all Form 4 candidates.

He spoke in Mombasa after officiating the opening of exam materials at the Mvita DCC offices.

Machogu said the government has made all necessary preparations including training of invigilators, supervisors, centre managers and security personnel on what they are supposed to do.

“According to the preparations this year, we don’t expect to have even a single malpractice anywhere within the country. We expect a smooth examination period because we have made all the necessary preparations,” he said.

Some 3,416,048 students are sitting for their national examinations across the country this December.

About 1,287,597 Grade 6 students sat for their inaugural Kenya Primary School Education Assessment, with 1,244,188 siting for their KCPE exam, which ended on Wednesday.

Those siting for the KCSE exam are 884,263.

Machogu said there are 498 distribution centres in the country with more than 20,000 examination centres where students are taking their examinations.

“We have also provided adequate transportation to each centre. This includes areas which are not accessible like parts of Tana River and Northeastern where we are using choppers to deliver the examination materials,” Machogu said.