By Edwin Cheserek and Rawlings Otieno
The Ministry of Education has asked teachers to be patient, saying there were plans to hire 80,000 instructors.
Education minister Mutula Kilonzo said they were engaging with the Treasury to release Sh48 billion for hiring teachers.
The minister also asked the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) to be patient, saying the Government was working out modalities to address their demands.
“Strike should not be used as the ultimate solution because this is a matter of engagement,” he said when he commissioned classrooms at Ilula Mixed School for the disabled in Uasin Gishu County. “I am ready to welcome teachers in my office for dialogue because we all want our education system to be more efficient.”
This comes barely a day after Knut warned of impending strike should the Government fail to employ additional teachers as agreed earlier.
Separately, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Secretary, Gabriel Lengoiboni, said the shortage of teachers could only be addressed if at least 10,000 teachers are recruited every year for the next five years.
acute shortage
Speaking during the official launch of Primary Teachers training selection at Kenya Institute of Education on Tuesday, Mr Lengoiboni noted that the acute shortage cannot be addressed at once.
“We are talking with the teachers’ union and they are in support that we continue recruiting more teachers,” added Lengoiboni.
He stressed that recruitment will be conducted using prescribed guidelines introduced last year.
In the revised guidelines, the TSC has implemented an erstwhile controversial policy, which requires that prospective teachers must have attained a minimum mean grade of C+ and above in KCSE to qualify for interviews in the current recruitment.
The new policy is likely to ruffle feathers in the teaching fraternity given that most teacher-trainees may not meet this requirement.
At the same time, the Government has selected at least 8,550 candidates for training in primary teachers colleges.
