TSC Field Officers Decry Inadequate Funding For The Ongoing Teacher Recruitment
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.
