County teachers selection process kicks off next week

The county selection process for teachers will commence next week on Thursday, Teachers Service Commission has said.

The teachers’ employer released a reviewed roadmap for recruitment of teachers, saying the successful applicants will report to schools on January 4, next year.

The commission also said the county selection of teachers will take five days running from October 8 to 14.

“Vetting and handling of complaints at county level will take place between October 15 and 22 after which the documents will be submitted to the TSC headquarters between October 23 and 26,” read a notice from TSC. 

This will be followed by verification of results at TSC headquarters, an exercise which will run between October 27 and November 18.

TSC secretary Nancy Macharia yesterday told the Senate education committee that in determining the teacher shortage, the Commission is guided by staffing norms as opposed to pupil/student ratio.

She said TSC has developed staffing norms to guide staffing of primary schools, which state that a primary school be staffed on the basis of one-teacher-per-class-plus-one.

To address understaffing, Macharia said the Commission has consistently requested for increased budgetary provisions to employ 20,000 annually.

“This has not borne much fruit as the National Assembly appropriates Sh2.5 billion annually for recruitment of 5,000 teachers,” explained Macharia.

In readiness for the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary at the beginning of 2018, she said TSC projected to recruit additional 12,626 teachers annually for the next four years.

To this end, the commission requested additional funds of Sh5 billion for recruitment but was not honoured.

For the year 2017/18, they recruited 8,700, and 5000 teachers in 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years, which translates to a shortage of 26,804.

However, she told the committee that the commission has put in place mechanisms to ensure that replacement of teachers who exit the service through natural attrition to avoid interrupted learning.

“TSC has ensured that teachers already in the service and the few who are recruited are proportionately distributed across the country to address staffing gaps.”

Macharia also told the committee that Teachers Performance and Appraisal Development (TPAD) and Performance Contracting (PC) tools have borne fruit over the years and there is even better delivery.

“This has eased supervision. School administrators have benefitted most as TPAD has eased their work of curriculum delivery supervision and absenteeism was reported to have drastically reduced,” said Macharia.

 And just like other activities of the Commission, Macharia said implementation of TPAD has been adversely affected by Covid-19 pandemic but will resume once schools are reopened.

On promotion of head teachers and their deputies, she said the Commission has considered availability of funds, merit and ability as reflected in teacher’s work performance, seniority and experience as set out in Career Progression Guidelines (CPG).

Replacement of teachers

There has also be existence of a vacancy in approved establishment, academic and professional qualification and minimum qualifications per grade.

To ensure the process of selection and appointment is fair, she said the commission has ensured that all promotion vacancies are filled competitively.

She said that shortlisting of applicants is undertaken using an objective criteria embedded in the CPG and Code of Regulation for teachers.

“The selection criteria is developed under a rigorous process and is duly approved by the members of the commission.

Interviews are then conducted in an open, accountable and transparent manner,” she explained.

And appreciating that some schools are located in Arid and Semi-Arid  and hard to staff areas, she said that besides the guidelines, the commission applies principle of affirmative action in the promotion of institutional administrators when circumstances demand.