According to the latest data, almost half of the entire 346,760 teachers who work for the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) are from just three ethnic communities revealing worrying disparities in the current system of education.
The data presented to the National Assembly Committee on National Cohesion and Equal opportunities, the Kalenjin Community is leading with 59,538 teachers followed by Kikuyus with 59,010 and the Luhya Community with 52,882.
The three ethnic communities make up 171,430 teachers which are almost half the entire TSC teachers’ workforce.
The Embu community has 5,700 teachers, the Maasai has 5,245; Taita with 3,248; the Pokot have 3,138; Samburu has 1,438; Turkana has 1,358 and Tharaka with 1,295 while the Borana ethnic community has 1,200.
Once the data was presented before the National Assembly’s Committee on Education, Adan Haji Yusuf urged the TSC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Nancy Macharia to explain the reason for the disparities in the employment of teachers under the Commission.
In her response, Dr Nancy Macharia cleared the air concerning the issue saying that members of some ethnic communities especially those in far-flung parts of the country a relative lack of interest in recruitment.
The TSC CEO laid the blame on the National Assembly’s Education Committee saying that it was also culpable for the huge imbalance in the ethnic distribution of teachers by pushing for the revision of the mode of employment.
The TSC CEO emphasized that the Commission had fair competition and appointments and promotions are merit-based through advertisement of vacant positions in its staff establishment, conducting of interviews, and selecting and appointing staff while following the issued guidelines and requirements for the workforce with a national outlook.
Despite the Commission’s efforts in ensuring fair competition in the recruitment of teachers, there are ethnic disparities in employment which are still a cause for concern because they reveal an unequal distribution of resources and opportunities among the Commission’s employees.