Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has stated that the government needs to hire over 111,000 teachers to combat the current shortage of tutors in schools.
This comes following a huge shortage of teachers that has compromised the quality of education in public schools.
Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia revealed that the acute shortage the agency seeks to bridge in the next five years is subject to availability of funds.
“To address the teacher shortage, the commission requires to recruit 111,870 teachers over a period of five years,” Macharia told the Senate’s National Cohesion and Integration Committee on Tuesday.
Moreover, the shortage of teachers includes 47,329 at primary level and 64,541 in post-primary institutions.
This revelation came as senators called for the return of delocalization policy that was stopped by the current regime.
According to the senator, removal of the policy led to other regions having less teachers.
Nancy Macharia further revealed that TSC had affected a total of 15,824 transfers of teachers to their preferred counties as of April 2023.
“The commission transfers teachers who apply for transfers back to their home counties subject to availability of vacancies,” she stated.
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However, the legislators criticized the move and asked the commission to revoke the decision to limit teachers to their areas.
Furthermore, Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago slammed the National Assembly for compelling the teacher’s commission to revoke the delocalization policy.
According to Mandago, the move offends Article 10(2)(b) of the Constitution which states that national values and principles of governance include “human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalized”.
Nonetheless, the TSC boss noted that the commission requires an annual budgetary allocation of Sh14.8 billion for the next five years to bridge the teachers’ gap. This translates to about Sh74 billion.
“To achieve this, the commission requires an annual budgetary allocation of Sh14.8 billion for recruitment of teachers as an intervention measure,” she stated.