Primary school teachers who had not upgraded from the Primary Teacher Education (PTE) certificate to Diploma Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) may have feared for their future since the Commission’s directive was straightforward.
However, the Commission has now come out to reveal that it will not be locking these teachers out of employment with the Commission.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Dr Nancy Macharia revealed this in a media workshop that was held in Naivasha where she assured teachers that they shall still be employed regardless of the policy in place.
“It was a government Policy when we trained certificate P1 teachers. All those who were trained before the policy was installed must be employed and they will not be put at a disadvantage,” said TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia.
This comes amid the Commission’s plans to hire more teachers in July next year.
The indication of the Commission hiring more teachers stems from the Ministry of Education getting allocated an increased allocation in the budget proposal. The allocation will rise from the current Sh. 281.7 bilion to Sh. 296.6 billion. This represents a budgetary rise in the allocation of an Sh. 14.9 billion.
In the BPS, Teacher Resource Management has received Sh. 288.4 billion. When compared to the current Sh. 273.2 billion, this represents an increase of Sh. 15.2 billion.
Current expenses in this category will get an increase of Sh. 14.7 billion to reach a figure of Sh. 287.3 billion. The current allocation is Sh. 272.6 billion for the Financial Year 2021/22.
On the other hand, Capital expenses will not be getting additional funding from the current allocation of Sh. 60 Million.
The additional funding to the Teacher Resource Management is an indication that the Commission is preparing to recruit more teachers and also cover salary increments.
Teachers were given a raw deal when the Commission offered teachers via teachers’ unions a non-monetary Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) revealed that all civil servants will go through a two-year salary freeze on their pay rise in July this year.
The Commission’s data as of 2018 reveals that 28,843 teachers had been employed, with 8,390 teachers in primary schools and 20,453 teachers being recruited to secondary schools.
The Commission expected a teacher shortage of 97,826 teachers (61,671 in secondary schools and 36,155 in primary schools), 97,214 teachers in 2022 (35,543 in primary and 61671 in secondary) and 96,612 teachers (34,941 for primary schools and 61671 for secondary schools in 2023.
According to Economic Survey Report, the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in primary schools rose from 104.4 per cent in 2018 to 100.2 per cent in 2019 and then reduced to 99.6 per cent last year.
Enrolment of pupils with special needs increased from 121,392 in the 2018/19 Financial Year and then to 136,081 in the 2019/20 Financial Year and 132,466 in the 2020/21 Financial Year.
The number of students who were enrolled in Public Secondary Schools increased from 2,954,330 to 3,289,885 in 2018/19 and 2020/21 Financial Years respectively. GER for secondary schools increased from 70.3% to 71.2 from 2018 to 2019 respectively.
The BPS reveals that the education sector has received an allocation of Sh. 525.9 billion in the FY 2022/23, 539.9 billion in the FY 2023/24 and the FY 2024/25 receiving 558.4 billion.