The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has finally released data of teachers who are going to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus global pandemic by June 2021.
At the moment of writing, this article 110,000 teachers gave been prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Commission said that these entail staff members who are of age 50 years and above and are in the first group set to be vaccinated.
Teachers Service Commission’s CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia on Monday urged teachers set to mark the KCSE and KCPE examinations to take the COVID-19 vaccination jab when they shall enter Nairobi County. Macharia said this while at Aquinas High School in Nairobi before the KCSE Mathematics Paper 1 begun.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has already addressed means of Transport for teachers who shall participate in marking the national examinations.
Teachers are going to be transported from the local areas they reside beginning from Tuesday to mark the national examinations.
Dr. Macharia revealed that out of the 110,000 teachers, 92,850 teach in public schools and are within the age 50 years age category. 15,000 teachers are of age 58 years and above.
Some 16,500 are in the high-risk category and teach in private and international schools.
Dr. Macharia released the data after monitoring the ongoing KCSE examinations in Nairobi.
While launching the mass vaccination of teachers program, Dr. Willis Akhwale, chairman of the COVID-19 task force for vaccine deployment, said that teachers having medical conditions but are not in the age bracket that requires prioritization shall be vaccinated in the next round.
“We are expecting to receive another batch of about one million vaccines and those teachers will be considered then,” said Dr. Akhwale.
TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia said that the commission is working behind the scenes to ensure all teachers get vaccinated.
“We shall continue collaborating with the Ministry of Health to ensure that, gradually, all teachers receive the jab,” said the TSC boss.
Dr. Nancy said that teachers are a vulnerable group as they come into close contact with students and pupils who may not show any symptoms even when they are infected with COVID-19.
The TSC CEO went further and assured Kenyans that the decision to open the age bracket for teachers will go a long way in preventing infections among tutors.
There are 330,671 teachers at the moment who work in public schools and 158,000 others work in private schools.