The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has issued a warning about the country’s massive shortage of teachers.
TSC Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, revealed that the commission needs at least 114,581 additional teachers to solve the obvious gap at the release of the 2021 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam results at Mtihani House.
While the government supports the annual recruitment of 5,000 teachers, the TSC president stated that this amount is insufficient to meet the country’s ever-increasing number of students.
TSC is grateful to the government for allocating funds and resources to allow us to recruit an average of 5,000 teachers every year for our public schools. That notwithstanding, we still have a shortage of 114,581 educators in primary and post-primary institutions,” Macharia stated.
The TSC’s executive director stated that the current teacher-to-student ratio was unbalanced and did not satisfy international standards.
Macharia blamed the deficit on the 100% transfer strategy from primary to secondary schools, which was attended by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha.
“This is due to increased enrolment as a result of the 100% transition policy and the registration of new schools,” the TSC president explained.
She went on to say that before the start of the new academic year in May 2022, the Commission will conduct a nationwide audit of all basic education institutions to ensure that they have a balanced teacher-to-learner ratio.
Macharia mentioned that 60,000 teachers registered under TSC will be trained in April on Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). This corresponds to the start of junior secondary school.
CS Magoha highlighted that the class of 2021 will be the second last to take the national test under the 8-4-4 system while publishing the KCPE results. Grades 7 and 8 will be relocated to high school under CBC.
Since then, the state has poured billions into overseeing the construction of tens of thousands of classrooms around the country. Magoha stated that before handing over to the next CS in the government established after the August 9, 2022 elections, he will ensure that the construction of classrooms is completed.
