TSC to employ 20,000 teachers next year.
The government has said that it will spend Sh4 billion hiring 20,000 more teachers in the upcoming fiscal year, primarily at Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), in an effort to alleviate the present teacher shortage.
This comes after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) reached an agreement last week.
In addition, the employer of the teachers has consented to convert all 26,000 intern teachers hired in 2023 to permanent positions with pension benefits starting in January 2025.
Two thousand of the 20,000 teachers that the JSS planned to absorb would be sent to arid and semi-arid areas.
According to Kuppet Secretary-General Akello Misori, the TSC has granted their request to evaluate the career advancement guidelines that have caused teachers’ salaries to stagnate and to create new guidelines with input from the public.
Under the plan, 30,000 instructors would be promoted in the fiscal year that ends in June 2025, benefiting 50,000 teachers who have been stagnant since 2017.
“The Commission intends to propose a budget of Sh1 billion for the upward mobility of 30,000 educators who have experienced years of stagnation,” stated Mr. Misori.
Nonetheless, the significant victory results from senators’ pressure on TSC about contract teacher hiring and career-growth initiatives.
The MPs demanded answers from the commission headed by Ms. Nancy Macharia regarding the agency’s plans for the tutors, as well as further information regarding the alleged prejudice and what would happen to tutors engaged under contract.
The legislators, led by Senator Esther Okenyuri, who was nominated, demanded that TSC clarify if the instructors qualified for permanent employment.
Ms. Okenyuri requested that the head of the TSC be called in to address concerns regarding allegations of discrimination during regular replacement, recruitment, and employment of permanent and pensionable teachers, as well as to clarify whether the Commission can employ contract-employed teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
She also requested that the Commission list all instructors now working on non-permanent, pensionable periods as well as the number of new hires made each year.
“The career growth path plans put in place to help these young contract employees grow and advance their careers should be elaborated upon by the Commission,” Ms. Okenyuri stated.
“They should also specify which sections of the TSC regulations or human resource policy deal with the professional development of contract teachers,” she continued.
The announcement came after thousands of contract JSS teachers, who were also opposed by the Kenya National Union of Teachers, threatened to go on strike over TSC’s intention to prolong their contracts rather than engage them on a permanent and pensionable basis.
In response to the senators, Ms. Macharia stated that the majority of teachers hired on contractual terms were employed in the counties of Mandera, Garissa, Wajir, and Lamu in order to solve the teacher shortage brought on by insecurity in those four areas.
In order to solve the shortage in the four counties caused by the mass teacher transfers in 2020, the Commission hired 500 teachers on a contract basis.
She clarified that only instructors who have reached the required retirement age of 60 are employed on a contract basis by the Commission. These agreements last for three years or until the signatory reaches the age of sixty-five, whichever comes first.
The TSC chief further stated that as the contract teachers do not participate in such recruitment, they are not qualified for permanent employment with pension benefits.
“The Commission has no policy in place tailored for the career progression of the teachers, given the short duration of their contract and the fact that they had already achieved their highest grade prior to retirement,” Ms. Macharia stated.
Senator Okenyuri, however, took issue with the Commission’s decision to only hire senior educators for contract roles rather than drawing on the large pool of young, competent educators who are looking for stable TSC employment.
Beyond giving higher scores during the hiring process, she contended, the Commission is failing in its duty to nurture and assist the professional development of these future educators by not having comprehensive plans in place for the transfer of JSS teachers into full-time roles.
“In order to improve our education system and the hopes of our otherwise talented teaching workforce, we must create comprehensive policies for hiring and retaining teachers in the education sector,” Senator Okenyuri stated.
TSC to employ 20,000 teachers next year.
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