TSC deploys over 30,000 Junior Secondary School teachers

The Teachers
Service Commission (TSC) has posted over 30,000 teachers to public Junior Secondary
Schools across the country, and they’re expected to report by Monday next week.

The move comes
amidst concerns from a section of stakeholders in the education sector over
whether the number of teachers employed by TSC will suffice to meet the growing
demand.

Almost a week
since Grade 7 learners reported to school to start their first term of Junior
Secondary School, the Ministry of Education is still trying to ensure that this
first cohort settles in school.

However, the
delayed deployment of teachers especially for public schools is one of the key
challenges that paralysed learning in the first week

“I was in Kisumu
yesterday and I visited about 7 schools, I interviewed head teachers who are
manning Junior Secondary Schools and the answer was these teachers have not
reported. And for those who have reported, it’s a single teacher against a
stream of 4, so it becomes a big question,”said  KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu.

The situation is
likely to change in the coming week after the TSC posted over 30,000 teachers
expected to report to public Junior Secondary Schools across the country on
Monday.

The distribution
of teachers was done according to the number of Grade 7 classes per county with
each Junior Secondary School getting one teacher.

TSC was seeking to
employ 90,000 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms of service and 21,550
teacher interns.

According to the
recruitment plan by TSC, counties likely to be the biggest beneficiaries
include Kitui, which was to have a recruitment of 1,475 teachers, Kakamega (1,449),
Nakuru (1,223), Bungoma (1,208), Meru (1,120) and Machakos (1,050).

Counties that will
receive the least number of teachers in this recruitment plan include Isiolo
expecting 119 teachers, Lamu (131), Samburu (175), Garissa (190), Marsabit (191),
Mombasa (192), and Tana River (192).

Mr. Oyuu has poked
holes into the recruitment process claiming that teachers who got below the C+
grade in their KCSE were unfairly locked out.

“If this teacher
has competently qualified for the teaching subjects and has a degree, the
teacher has qualified competently for the degree certificate then I don’t think
it is wise enough to condemn this teacher for not being able to handle Junior
Secondary School based on the fact that the teacher had a grade C plain,” said the
KNUT boss.

While appreciating
the move by the commision to employ a record high number of teachers within a
single year, the education stakeholders maintain that more needs to be done to
address the teacher deficit

“Our teachers are
overburdened, so with the new curriculum and the new approaches to learning,
TSC must rationalise staffing. This is the time that TSC should not have other
regions understaffed while other regions are overstaffed, so they must be
keen,” KUPPET Secretary General Akelo Misori stated.

Another crucial
factor is the issue of equipping the human resource for CBC implementation.

“Already we have
trained 2,376 master trainers, we target to train 90,000 teachers between now
and April 2023,” TSC CEO Nancy Macharia said.

Misori added: “The
teacher issue is a very serious issue and for this curriculum to be implemented
with the attendant results we expect numbers, the teachers should be motivated,
the teachers should be properly inducted into the processes so that’s why it is
a key issue in CBC success and implementation.”

According to the
guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education, Junior Secondary School learners
will be taken through a maximum of 14 learning areas spread across 9 lessons
each day.

Junior Secondary
School teachers are expected to deliver 45 lessons a week.