Machogu on JSS Teacher Shortage amid Other Challenges
The Cabinet Secretary for Education Ezekiel Machogu has addressed fears of junior secondary school headteachers worrying about the delay in the deployment of Grade Seven teachers.
CS Machogu held a press conference in Nairobi on the 6th of February where Machogu where he assured members of the public that the government had recruited enough teachers who were ongoing with the process of reporting to their schools.
According to CS Magoha, the public should not be concerned since the government has recruited enough teachers and they will be reporting to schools this week or next week at the latest.
The Government through the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has hired 9,000 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms of service. In addition, a total of 30,000 teachers have been hired in both primary and secondary schools.
Junior Secondary School (JSS) headteachers who had received teachers claimed that the number of hired teachers did not match the demands of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
However, not all headteachers were sad about the situation with some expressing their gratitude that the Commission had allocated two teachers to their schools but still called for more teachers to help address the situation.
In addition to concerns over teacher shortage, JSSs headteachers are also having to deal with problems with accessing textbooks for the Grade Seven class.
One headteacher who preferred to be anonymous said that he had attempted to search for the books but could not find them. Alternatives were also not available due to pending approval from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
Private schools have also experienced problems of their own in learning.
The Kenya Private School Association (KPSA) Chairperson Charles Ochomo said that they had experienced challenges among them the retooling of teachers in line with the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Earlier, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) urged TSC to hasten the deployment of teachers to avoid wastage of time.
Low enrolment of JSS learners in JSSs has been attributed mainly due to not being able to pay school fees.
CS Machogu also revealed that the government had not released the capitation meant for JSS due to pending final data on the enrolment numbers.
The government allocates Kes. 15,000 per student for JSSs.
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