Dr Nancy Macharia, the Chief Executive Officer of Teachers Service Commission, TSC, has announced that the commission will recruit 5,000 teachers this year in August 2019.
The Commission (TSC) said that the teachers will be hired on permanent and pensionable terms this financial year.
TSC CEO further added that to help in solving the ongoing teacher shortage in both primary and secondary schools, the Commission will employ unknown number of intern teachers at a cost of Sh1.2 billion.
The TSC recruitment of teachers in August 2019, will see more than 5,000 teaching vacancies advertised both for primary and secondary schools, either in late July or early August.
This is part of the Sh3.2 billion allocated to the Teachers Service Commission in June by the National Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich for the additional recruitment of teachers.
Dr Masharia said, “We hope this prompt and wonderful government intervention will go a long way to address the teachers’ shortage as we continue with the implementation of the competency based curriculum (CBC).”
Current 317,000 Teachers are Over-Stretched
TSC said that its 317,000 teachers are too burdened to serve the current number of learners. Thus, they had projected an additional 12,626 teachers annual to ease the stretch.
Statistics show that TSC has a deficit of about 100,000 teachers.
Teacher shortage skyrocketed in 2019 following the government’s push for 100 percent transition of learners from primary to secondary levels, despite the education sector receiving the lion’s share of the national budget.
The commission says Sh82 billion will be required to employ teachers over the next five years, according to the TSC’s 5 year Strategic Plan.