The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is set to deploy an additional 7,282 serving primary school teachers to various public Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) countrywide.
The Commission revealed that these teachers were identified after verification of their persona files which confirmed that they met the set qualifications for posting to the JSS.
This information was contained in the TSC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Nancy Macharia’s response to the Departmental Committee on Education on Teachers’ Medical Cover, Recruitment, Promotion and Delocalization of Teachers in the National Assembly on the 14th of February, 2023.
The TSC CEO stated in the document that the mapping exercise to identify more teachers eligible to serve in primary schools in JSS was ongoing. She added that the exercise would continue in order to address the shortages at that level of learning.
The requisite qualifications for deployment from primary to secondary school include:
- Having either a Diploma in Education or a Bachelor’s Degree in Education,
- At least a C+ mean grade in KCSE or its equivalent,
- At least a C+ in the two teaching subjects at KCSE or its equivalent
- At least eight (8) units in each of the two teaching subjects.
Dr Macharia said that the Commission had been working on solving the teacher shortage in secondary schools since 2019 by promoting and deploying primary school teachers to teach in secondary schools.
In a recent recruitment drive, the Commission recruited 30,550 teachers and posted them to the JSS but still faced a further shortage of 30,550 given that the teacher establishment for Grade Seven (7) is 61,000 with at least two educators required per class.
According to TSC, out of the 30,550 teachers recruited in January this year, 9,000 of them shall serve on permanent and pensionable terms and be posted to the JSS and 21,550 were taken up on internship terms.
The remaining vacancies were sent to primary schools with 1,000 hired on permanent and pensionable terms while 4,000 were deployed as interns.