The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) field officers have complained of underfunding the ongoing teacher recruitment, warning that this risks undermining service delivery.

According to TSC Sub County Directors familiar with the case, each officer is allocated KSh13,000 to meet a number of expenses, blasting it as a drop in the ocean.

Out of this, Ksh 1,000 goes for airtime, Ksh 5,000 for hospitality to cater for tea and snacks and Ksh7,000 for domestic travel and for officers’ lunch allowance.

With this allocation, it implies that each officer is forced to receive a paltry Ksh 280 per day for both domestic travel and lunch for the five days scheduled for the exercise.

Each panel is made up of five members at the sub-county level.

The field officers say crucial services and items like stationery, toners for printers and frequent movements from their offices to TSC County Directors’ offices were not factored in the budget.

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Sources say that the SCD have been given a list of up to 1,400 applicants to communicate to in the next five days.

This implies that on average they are supposed to communicate with up to 300 applicants a day.

“If you take on average 1 short message service (SMS) cost Ksh 1, which brings to an average of Ksh 1,400 airtime to send to all the 1,400 applicants and I have been given Ksh 1,000 as airtime; does it really add up?” wondered one of the TSC SCD noted one field officer.

Those who spoke to our team on condition of anonymity for fear of victimization from the headquarters also decried of tight instructions to the allocation, since they are further required to prepare supporting documents and claims as per the vote heads provided.

Expected supporting documents are airtime receipts, receipts for tea and snacks and payment schedules for the lunches.

There is no indication from TSC whether they will be reimbursed the out of pocket in the event situations demand especially copies of the score guides and sheets required during the interview process.

The fear of most of them is that their bosses at the headquarters will commence disciplinary proceedings against any officer who fails to deliver despite failure by the Commission to provide the necessary tools for work.

This is not the first time TSC sub-county bosses have complained over their state of work in their respective work stations.

In December 2022,the officers were forced to pile pressure to the Commission after it released a tight roadmap for recruitment.

The roadmap did not allow them spend time with their families during the festive season besides interfering with their role in administering the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

TSC was forced to revise its roadmap for the recruitment of teachers and interns who are expected to report in January this year.

In the now reviewed roadmap after completion of the county recruitment process; vetting at County Level, handling of complaints, signing of internship agreements, offer of internship letters and signing of offer of employment letters is currently ongoing, a process that will take 6 days from January 24,2023 to January 31,2023.

The recruited teachers are then expected to report to their respective schools on February 1,2023.

TSC directs the officers will have 4 days to submit the recruitment documents to the headquarters effective from February 6,2023 to February 9,2023.

However, the submission of the reporting status of the newly employed teachers by TSC County Directors remains unchanged which is by February 28,2023.

Plans by the government to employ 30,000 teachers in January has gotten a major boost after a successful meeting between the Deputy President Rigathi Cachagua and the officials from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education (MOE)

Early this week, a team from TSC, led by its CEO Nancy Macharia and another from MOE led by its Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang’ visited the Deputy President at his office for talks concerning education.

The meeting followed TSC’s revelation that talks regarding the employment of teachers have begun and that the commission will give information on how the recruitment exercise will be done.

“Consultations are ongoing with the Presidency on teacher recruitment and we shall be giving updates of the progress as we go along. Be assured that the Kenyan teacher can only expect good things going forward. We shall be telling you how to go on with this recruitment as per the Kenya Kwanza Charter,” said Macharia.

Towards the end of last month, TSC met all TSC Regional and County Directors to work out on a successful teacher recruitment process.

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Just after meeting TSC and the ministry this week, Gachagua said that the Kenya Kwanza government will focus on addressing teachers and students matters.

“The well-being of students and teachers is a key focus for the Kenya Kwanza Government. Today We discussed matters Education including teachers’ recruitment” said Gachagua.

TSC is yet to give statement on what was agreed. Last month the DP had a meeting with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

The DP agreed with KRA that more taxes will be collected to help in teacher recruitment exercise.

“We had a meeting with Kenya Revenue Authority and asked them to ensure they raise at least ksh 3 trillion this financial year to enable us recruit more teachers and finance other government programmes,” said Gachagua.

In the education charter signed with stakeholders in the education sector in June, President William Ruto committed to “ensure that the current teacher shortage of 116,000 is fully bridged within two financial years by employing 58,000 teachers at a cost of Sh25 billion per year”.

President William Ruto already affirmed that his government will employ 30,000 teachers starting January next year.

Dr. Ruto said some of the teachers to will be employed on permanent and pensionable terms while others will be interns.

The President who spoke on Wednesday 12th October after he officially opened the Komarock South Primary School funded by the Embakasi Central NG-CDF said his government will fulfill the employment promise he made to teachers.

“We have agreed with TSC that from January they will have recruited 30,000 more teachers, some will be employed on permanent terms while some will be interns so that we progressively bridge the teacher gap,” said Ruto.

Dr. Ruto noted that this will mark the first phase of absorbing more than 116,000 teachers to bridge the existing gap in schools. The plight of unemployed teachers was a key campaign issue for Kenya Kwanza.

There are at least 350,000 teachers who are yet to be absorbed into TSC payroll.

During the last recruitment in July, more than 356,000 jobless teachers applied for the 14,460 vacancies that had been advertised by the TSC.

Post-primary teaching vacancies attracted the highest number of applicants, with 219,311 teachers expressing interest in the 4,000 declared vacancies.

Of the 1,000 new vacancies advertised for primary school teachers, the commission received 136,833 applications.

The motion which directed the teachers service commission, TSC to amend its recruitment policy has not been received well by the cartels who have been interfering with teacher recruitment exercise.

This week, the Mps voted unanimously in favour of the motion dubbed “Review of Teacher Deployment Policy”, a motion which was sponsored by Lurambi Mp Titus Khamala.

Thereafter, TSC was ordered to review its teacher recruitment policy so that the employment of teachers starts at zonal level.

“Review the teacher recruitment policy with a view to devolving it to zonal level as the point of recruitment,” read the motion.

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For a very long time, unemployed teachers have protested injustices conducted by some TSC officials who are said to be part of recruitment cartels.

There have been complaints over some TSC Regional, County and Sub County Directors who together with their Human Resource Officers and Curriculum Support Officers who have awarded employment opportunities to undeserving teachers after receiving bribes.

With employment at zonal level, this will end as they will no longer import teachers from other counties at the expense of the local teachers.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is seeking funds to recruit 75,000 teachers by 2025 to help ease the curriculum burden in both primary and secondary schools as well as plug existing staff shortage.

In addition, the Commission plans to hire 36,000 intern teachers for both primary and secondary schools over the same period.

These are some of the proposals contained in the Education Sector Report: Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2022/2023-2024/2025 which was sent to parliament for consideration ahead of the 2022 budget allocation.

The Commission’s bold strategy seeks to enhance resource management, professional development, equity and access to quality teaching standards over the next three years.

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The document shows that TSC is planning to employ 39,000 teachers in secondary schools between 2022 and 2025, if the National Treasury makes available requisite resources.

It reveals that the TSC has established 13 measurable action points that aim to steer successful delivery of its crucial programmes, including effective staffing of schools.

The Commission has received approximately sh15 billion additional budget in the 2022-2023 financial year.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani had allocated an additional Sh14.9 billion to the TSC, whose budget has risen to Sh296.6 billion from Sh281.7 billion in the new financial year.

TSC says it will use the funds to employ more teachers to ease the curriculum burden for teachers. In a report, which was presented to the Committee on Education and Research of the National Assembly by the Parliamentary Budget Office, TSC has planned to use its increased allocation of Sh15 billion to employ 13,000 secondary school teachers and 9,000 interns to cope with exits and the expected increase in enrolment when junior secondary is rolled out in January 2023.

The Commission’s plea of sh.2.5 billion for employing 5,000 teachers was also approved by the Parliament.

Staffing has been a perennial milestone around TSC’s neck with Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia revealing that the service has a deficit of 114,581 teachers across training colleges, special needs education, curriculum support and primary and secondary schools.

Dr. Macharia attributes the situation to insufficient funding and implementation of the 100 percent transition policy of learners from primary to secondary education:

“Due to budget constraints the government is employing 5,000 teachers every year which is a drop in the ocean, “said Macharia.

“The existing teaching force is not commensurate to the learners enrolment,” Macharia told heads of institutions in Kisumu in December 2021.

The high number of those who quit either retire, resign, or die, while others are dismissed over various disciplinary cases.

Dr.Macharia said Kakamega and Bungoma counties had the highest teacher shortages in the country.

In January this year TSC advertised 2,945 vacancies to replace teachers exiting service through natural attrition. In the advert 2,053 posts went to primary schools and 892 posts to secondary schools.

The Commission posted a total of 1,995 new intern teachers to schools in the same month.  TSC extended internship contract for 4,005 serving intern teachers whose one-year term ended in December 2021.TSC employs at least 6,000 intern teachers each year.

Also, in January this year TSC launched virtual lessons to help address teacher shortage and provide learners with quality education.

However, it emerged that the ICT for schools plan requires the upscaling of internet connectivity. Many schools lack connectivity.

The programme will see teachers from well-staffed schools with better facilities virtually share their classes with other institutions.

TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia said the prolonged disruption of learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the fore the need to continuously empower teachers to respond to emerging trends and challenges.

During Covid 19, most schools were unable to access online lessons due to inadequate facilities and poor internet connectivity.

Macharia said the commission has now accelerated its online teaching and learning, citing the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project.

The programme is in piloting stage targeting 12 schools in 10 counties. Under the pilot programme, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and English will be live streamed from the host schools.

During the two-month pilot phase, livestreaming will focus on sciences, mathematics and English lessons, delivered from two principal schools.

Alliance Girls High School and Machakos Boys, well-staffed institutions with better facilities, will have their teachers share lessons with students in satellite schools across the 10 counties.

The two national schools have been paired with the satellite schools drawn from Isiolo, Kilifi, Bomet,Taita Taveta, Makueni and Kisii.

Macharia said the lessons will be interactive and collaborative through video and sound and learners will have a whole learning experience.

The programme targets Form Two students. Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Kahi Indimuli termed the project a game changer.

“It provides an opportunity to share knowledge, equipment and apparatus. It is a shared opportunity in learning and teaching approaches,” said Indimuli.

He, however, said schools will require high speed internet connectivity. But even as TSC launched the online lessons programme, teachers’ unions maintained quality teaching also requires proper staffing.

“Counties are not the same. Schools are not the same. We have gaps. Technology cannot replace teachers,” said Knut boss Collins Oyuu.

The teachers service commission, TSC has pre-awarded currently serving intern teachers 30 marks in the recently advertised July recruitment and replacement posts whose applications are still ongoing.

This is one decision that has attracted talks and criticisms from a section of Kenyans. A section of teachers feels that TSC is slowly making internship a compulsory requirement prior to recruitment. While justifying the essence of internship three years ago, TSC hinted that in future, all teachers will have to undergo a three-year internship programme before being absorbed under permanent and pensionable terms and conditions.

Applicants who are not currently serving as interns feel that the competition is not on a leveled play field since compensating for 30 marks to beat a competitor is impossible even if both of you are five years apart and the intern has a second class lower while you have a masters.

The 30 marks awarded to interns in the already released preliminary marking scheme will make unemployed teachers to scramble for internship posts the next time they are advertised till it will reach a level where non intern teachers will stop attending recruitment interviews to give way for the interns. When such a time reaches, according to the sources at TSC, there will be no more recruitment but confirmation of serving interns and contracting of fresh interns. Demand for internship will make TSC to skillfully stop recruiting teachers.

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For the remaining periods before TSC starts confirming interns officially, interns will be awarded marks based on durations they have served under internship.

Teachers have up to July 12 to apply online for the vacancies after which the shortlisted ones will be invited for interviews by the respective schools.

The commission at the same time advertised for 1000 vacancies for primary teachers wishing to teach in Secondary schools.