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Teachers Service Commission (TSC)   seeks to employ about 12,000 teachers in a massive recruitment drive. 

Chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said in a notice that the commission wants to fill 4,000 new positions in secondary and another 1,000 in primary schools.

The commission has advertised vacancies for 6,574 teachers out of which, 5,474 are for primary and 1,100 positions for secondary schools, to replace those who have exited the service through natural attrition.

“TSC is declaring 5,000 vacancies in secondary schools to support the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools.

The teachers recruited will serve on permanent and pensionable terms,” said Macharia.

To qualify, an applicant must be eligible to serve for a minimum period of 10 continuous years, effective the date of first appointment as required by law.

Recruitment guidelines

Macharia said preference will be given to applicants who have not previously been employed by TSC, even as she stated that manual applications will not be accepted.

Interested and qualified applicants must make their applications on the commission’s website not later than September 14.

To apply for secondary school positions, a teacher must be a Kenyan citizen, holder of at least a diploma in education and registered with TSC.

Teachers applying for primary school positions are expected to be holders of a P1 certificate and also be registered with TSC.

“In the case of primary schools, successful applicants will be posted to serve in any part of the country and not necessarily in the county where they were recruited,” Macharia explained.

TSC said applicants should only fill one application form. Applicants also will be subjected to the 2020/21 recruitment guidelines.

The commission has also provided a list of available vacancies per school and county, with applicants advised to check full details on the TSC website.

The commission is also seeking to promote and deploy some 1,000 practising teachers in public primary schools.

To qualify for promotion and deployment to secondary schools, Macharia said a candidate must be a Kenyan citizen with a  P1 certificate and be a holder of bachelors degree in education with two teaching subjects.

The teacher must also have attained at least C+ (plus) mean grade at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent and a C+ (plus) or its equivalent in two teaching subjects and serving under TSC.

“Successful applicants under this category will be appointed at T-Scale 7, under the Career Progression Guidelines for teachers and will be deployed to secondary schools where vacancies exist,” Macharia said.

TSC warned teachers against being duped, saying that the recruitment exercise is free of charge.

“TSC would wish to fore-warn applicants against fraudsters who might extort money from unsuspecting persons purporting to assist in recruitment.

Any fraudulent activity should be reported to the nearest TSC office or headquarters through the director of staffing,” Macharia advised.

The recruitment exercise comes in the wake of the government’s move to set the pace for reopening of schools, having closed the institutions since March because of coronavirus pandemic.

The Ministry of Education is expected to hold a stakeholders’ meeting on September 14 to chart the way forward for basic education, which gives them another two weeks to observe the virus trend.

Covid-19 positive cases have been on a steady decline in the country though the World Health Organization has cautioned that Kenya is not out of the woods yet.

Teachers’ shortage

Both primary and secondary schools have reported biting teacher shortage over time, the situation worsened by increased learners’ enrollment annually.

Statistics indicate that almost 300,000 teachers are trained and qualified but are yet to secure jobs in the public service through TSC.

The TSC 2019-2023 Strategic Plan indicates that the number of unemployed teachers was almost the same to those employed, which stood at 317,069.

The commission advertised more than 2,000 job vacancies in January for both primary and secondary schools, who were expected to replace those who exited the service. The commission sought to recruit 1,591 teachers in primary schools and 529 in secondary schools.

At least 16,979 teachers were recruited last year and 10,000 interns reported to schools in January to ease staffing shortage.

The TSC 2019-23 Strategic Plan also indicates that the government plans to recruit at least 12,000 teachers annually towards addressing shortage in public schools.

By 2023, the teachers’ shortage is projected to hit 61,671 for secondary schools and 34,941 for primary.