Shocker of public service workers with low qualifications

Public Service Commission Chair Margaret Kobia.

Out of 184,519 public service workers, only 55,355 hold at least a bachelor‘s degree. The rest have lower qualifications or none at all.

This shocking revelation on the level of academic qualification in the Government is contained in the Public Service Commission's Statutory (PSC) Annual Report 2015.

The report terms the situation as “worrisome” and “signifies very low academic qualifications possessed by most public service employees”.

“A more worrisome picture however, is that about 10 per cent of the entire workforce in the public service have either primary certificates or no academic qualifications at all,” reads the 2014-2015 evaluation report.

The lack of academic qualifications, according to the audit, is “more pronounced” in ministries, where only 15 per cent of the workforce are graduates. Here, the majority (69 per cent) have either A-level or O-level certificates.

“...only 15 per cent hold at least a bachelor’s degree and above, 4.3 per cent hold diploma and seven per cent are primary school certificate holders.”

Three per cent of the total staff in the ministries have no academic qualification, reads the audit.

The audit report says 30,006 ministry workers have O-level papers, 1,667 workers have no certificates at all while 3,451 have primary school papers.

Some 1,078 workers in ministries have a master’s degree while 6,571 are bachelor’s degree holders.

About 1,903 staff in ministries have ordinary diplomas while 145 have higher diploma certificates.

The report assesses the extent to which the public service has complied with the national and public service values and principles.

The document is an annual progress report by the PSC on ministries, departments and authorities (MDAs).

On State corporations, the report says only 27 per cent of the workforce have at least a bachelor’s degree and above.

Parastatals are the most intelligent of the lot with 3,678 PhD holders. Though this is the highest number, it’s also in State corporations where you find the highest number of workers (3,308) without any certificates at all.

There are 16,966 staff with a bachelor’s degree, 10,073 with a master’s degree and 6,949 workers who are holders of primary school certificates.

The report says statutory commissions and authorities generally have staff with higher qualification, largely because of the technical nature of their mandates.

The audit reveals that there are only six PhD holders in constitutional commissions and five of them fall under job group R-T with the remaining one under job group N-Q.

Some 340 staff have a master’s degree and 773 workers have a bachelor’s degree.

There are 803 constitutional commission staff with O-level papers and some 81 with A-level certificates. Only 24 staff have primary certificates.

And on statutory commission and authorities, the report reveals that 70.5 per cent of the workforce hold at least a bachelor’s degree and above.

The audit reveals that there are only six PhD holders under statutory commission and authorities and some 111 workers with a master’s degree.

Some 654 workers have postgraduate diploma certificates, 152 have at least bachelor’s degree, 49 workers have higher diploma, 125 have ordinary diploma while 12 staff have primary school papers.