Over 111,000 teachers required to address shortage, says TSC

The government 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 CEO Nancy Macharia has revealed the acute shortage that the agency seeks to bridge in the next five years, 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 on Tuesday.

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

The revelations emerged even as senators called for a return of the delocalisation 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 revealed that as at April, 2023 the commission had affected a total of 15,824 transfers of teachers to their preferred counties.

“The commission transfers teachers who apply for transfers back to their home counties subject to availability of vacancies,” she said.

But the lawmakers criticised the move and asked the commission to rescind the decision to limit teachers to their areas.

Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago criticised the National Assembly for compelling the TSC to rescind the delocalisation policy.

He said that it offends Article 10(2)(b) of the Constitution which states that national values and principles of governance include "human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalised".

“As the upper House, we need to revisit and veto that decision,” he said.

Macharia stated that the commission requires annual budgetary allocation of Sh14.8 billion for the next five years to bridge the teachers' gap. This translates to about Sh74 billion.

“To achieve this, the commission requires annual budgetary allocation of Sh14.8 billion for recruitment of teachers as an intervention measure,” she said.

She said that 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 recruitment of additional teachers, engagement of teacher interns and recruitment of teachers on contractual terms in Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Lamu counties.

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

This even as she said that the commission transfers teachers who apply for transfers back to their home counties subject to availability of vacancies.

In carrying out transfers, the commission considers other extrinsic factors such as the age of the teacher, health status, teachers with alternative abilities, transfers on promotion, proximity to home county, size and performance of schools and category of schools and family considerations.

On Tuesday, Macharia told the Mohamed Chute-led committee that during the recent recruitment of teachers, the Kalenjin community were the majority at 4,048.

The commission also recruited teachers from the Luhya (3,187), Kikuyu (2,913), Luo (2,576), Kisii (1,737) and Meru (1,122) communities, respectively.

Macharia, however, promised to provide a detailed report of all the 36,000 in June after the commission concludes updating its records.

According to the chief executive, the teachers’ employer will recruit an additional 20,000 teachers in the next financial year if their budget proposal is approved by the National Assembly.

She said that of the 20,990 who were recruited in January, the age distribution ranges between 21 to 56 years, with the majority being 28 years old.