Thousands of teachers to be transferred as TSC addresses shortage

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chairperson, Dr. Lydia Nzomo

Thousands of teachers will be transferred as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) addresses shortage of tutors.

The TSC has called for rationalisation that will see teachers majorly from schools in town centres deployed to interior regions that face shortage.

But Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has opposed the exercise and warned of a strike if TSC implements the directive.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said TSC will be making the ‘worst decision ever’ to cover up the failure of the government to hire teachers.

“I am assuring them 100 per cent. Let them not dare destabilise the lives of teachers and parents or else the mother of all strikes will be called to have teachers employed,” said Mr Sossion.

In a circular to County Directors dated June 9, Ag Director Teacher Management Abdirizak Farah directed a conclusive staff balancing exercise saying recent data presented by the officials (county directors) revealed that some schools were overstaffed.

“It has been noted from your recent data returns that there are many schools which are over staffed at the expense of others. In some counties, there is overall over staffing, hence the need to release the excess teachers to neighbouring centres,” said Mr Farah.

But Sossion has argued that rationalising will not help but only ‘redistribute’ the problem further as the number of teachers will remain the same and the shortage will persist.

“No school has more teachers. The government is just escaping reality. Do they think it is hard to call a strike? It is just about asking teachers not to report to work,” he warned.

In the memo, Farah had noted the urgent need to ensure the available ‘teacher resource’ is equitably distributed and optimally utilised.

“You (County Directors) are therefore instructed to ensure that you undertake an urgent teacher rationalisation exercise with a view of ensuring that all underutilised teachers are staff balanced,” he directed.

The officials are expected to complete the exercise and submit a report by July 31.

However, primary school heads have warmed up to the exercise saying it will address teachers shortage.

Kenya Primary School Heads Association (Kepsha) Chair Shem Ndolo welcomed the TSC directive.

“If it is going to address the shortage of teachers then it is fine. They do the rationalisation then later employ more teachers to cater for the deficit,” said Mr Ndolo.

He said it is normal to find schools in town centres with more teachers than those in interior as many have better amenities.

“This has no doubt left schools in interior with less than the required number of teachers,” he said.

A 2014/15 report by TSC indicated that the Kenya has a shortage of 85,000 teachers.

“This is the biggest in Sub Saharan Africa. Kenyan teachers are the most overworked,” said Sossion.

He added: “Since TSC has not been allocated any money they have been compelled to apply unrealistic means that will not work. They should be bold enough and address the report.”

Earlier, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i had insisted that there was no shortage of teachers as stakeholders claimed, citing the 2016 report by Economic Survey

“Let us be honest. We do not have a shortage of teachers. Our capacity is sufficient. The problem is deployment and posting,” said Dr Matiang’i.

The CS said apart from teacher absenteeism, the only other problem is equity in terms of teacher rationalisation.

“If you look at the spread on the way we post teachers we do not have equity in terms of teacher student ration. Some parts of country are better supplied than others because some teachers want to teach in particular regions,” he explained.

Sossion had dismissed the CSs’ claims through a letter dated May 10 and asked the Treasury to set aside some cash to employ at least 20,000 teachers in the 2016/17 financial year.

“But what did he do? He allocated billions of shillings to laptops forgetting that it is the same teachers that will be required to teach children how to use the laptops,” said Sossion.

He lamented that due to the government’s neglect and blind eye, parents and schools have been left to suffer: “...forty per cent of teachers in schools are paid through Board of Management yet this is the government’s responsibility.”

Formula of determining teacher shortage states that, for primary schools, it should be one teacher per class plus two and half times the number of classes per Sub County or district.

In secondary schools it is supposed to be a maximum of 27 lessons per week for every teacher while for tertiary institutions it is a maximum of 15 hours per week for every tutor.

A 2014 report by Dr Kilemi Mwiria, indicated that secondary schools use an average of Sh1.8 million on Board of Management (BoM) teachers annually due to the acute shortage of tutors.

BoM teachers constitute almost 40 per cent of the teaching force.