Teachers Service Commision (TSC) lists how counties will share 5,000 new teaching jobs

The Government has announced the recruitment of 5,000 teachers to bridge the growing teacher shortage. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) yesterday called for applications to recruit 2,338 secondary school teachers.

TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia. She said all candidates who had previously applied but were unsuccessful could reapply. (PHOTO: COURTESY)

Another 2,662 primary school teachers will be recruited after the National Treasury allocated Sh2.3 billion for the exercise. But there will still be a teacher shortfall of 75,000 even with the new recruitment.

TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said all candidates who had previously applied but were unsuccessful could reapply.

“They must apply afresh since a new list of merit for the 2015-2016 financial year will be generated,” said Ms Macharia.

All candidates interested in theprimary school slots have been asked to submit their documents to the TSC county director in their home counties.

"...they must submit all relevant academic and professional documents," reads the document signed by Macharia.

She said all applicants for the primary school posts must be holders of P1 certificates and said no candidate would be discriminated against.

"TSC is an equal opportunity employer and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply," said Macharia.

The TSC document released yesterday shows Kakamega County has been allocated the most slots (118) for primary schools followed by Kitui County (108 slots). Narok County has been allocated 100 slots and Migori County got 96.

Nyeri, Nyamira, Murang'a, Kisii and Kirinyaga counties have each been allocated 20 slots.

And for the secondary school slots, TSC said interested candidates must be diploma holders or higher.

Macharia said candidates for post-primary school slots must submit their applications to the Board of Management (BoM) secretaries of the schools where vacancies have been declared.

The TSC document indicates Meru County has been allocated 140 slots, the highest number. Murang'a has 118 slots and Kakamega 128.

Makueni got 115 slots with Bungoma getting 120, Kitui (107) and Nakuru County (96). Samburu and Tana River counties have the least slots of nine each.

Macharia said TSC would only deal with its county selection panels and the school BoMs during the recruitment exercise.

"Individual applications to the commission will not be considered," she said.

A communication from TSC warned applicants to be wary of fraudsters who might take advantage of the exercise to make money.

"The exercise is free of charge. The TSC would wish to forewarn applicants against fraudsters who might extort money from unsuspecting persons purporting to assist in recruitment," said Macharia.

She asked applicants to report fraudulent activities to the nearest police station, TSC county directors or to sub-county staffing officers.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) asked TSC to refine the recruitment criteria for this year.

Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori said the first-come-first-served criteria must be maintained.

Clear backlog

"We must clear the backlog first because these teachers have been in the cold for so long," he said, adding that these teachers were trained using public funds.

"That line must be protected. But the number being recruited is so small. Given over 7,000 teachers will be exiting this year, they should have recruited 10,000," said Misori.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the recruitment must be based on merit. "We shall be more keen this time round because we do not want any recruitment based on favouritism," said Sossion.

Trained primary school teachers aged 40 years and above stood a higher chance of recruitment last year based on the guidelines.

The guidelines accorded greater priority to candidates who graduated in 2002 or earlier and relied heavily on the quality of certificates presented by the candidates.

Knut National Chairnan Mudzo Nzili had said even 10,000 teachers were not enough to eradicate the shortage. Mr Nzili said the Government should hire at least 30,000 teachers in the 2015/2016 financial year.