New TSC Teacher Recruitment Rules Spark A Debate
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC), yesterday advertised 20,000 internship posts for primary and junior secondary school (JSS) teachers.
In the advert 2,000 slots went to primary school and the remaining 18,000 were reserved for junior secondary.
TSC activated the online recruitment portal and provided a link for interested teachers to apply. However upon applying a number of new issues revealed and are raising eyebrows.
1. Ethnicity requirement
For the first time teachers are required to state their ethnicity during the internship application. Many teachers are confused why the commission wants to list teachers ethnicity.
However this can be related to the TSC interim report that it submitted to Parliament in May.
The report stated that teachers of the Kalenjin community made the majority of the 36,000 teachers hired by TSC in January.
According to the report tabled by TSC CEO Nancy Macharia said the report was for 20,990 teachers out of the 36,000 that were recruited in January.
“At the time of preparing this report, 20,990 newly recruited teachers were on payroll from diverse ethnic groups,” Macharia told the National Assembly’s Cohesion and Equal Opportunity Committee.
From the TSC documents, the Kalenjin community got the highest number of slots followed by other big tribes like Luhya, Kikuyu, Kamba, Luo and Kisii.
The commission’s report showed that 4,048 Kelenjins were recruited, Luhya 3,187, Kikuyu 2,913, Luo 2,576 and Kisii 1,737.
At the bottom of the list were Kenya Arabs, Elmolo and Murulle communities getting one slot each.
Ogaden, Dorobo, Rendille, Sakuye each got two slots.
From the report, the 20,990 teaching slots were shared amongst 36 out of 42 official tribes meaning some six communities did not manage to get even a single slot.
2. Certificate of Good Conduct requirement
Successful teachers recruited as interns will now be required to produce certificate of good conduct.
The issue of certificate of good conduct requirement first came to light in 2021 when Prof. Fatuma Chege, Principal Secretary, State Department for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms said all teachers must have the document.
Chege said no teacher will be allowed to teach without a Certificate of good conduct under the new curriculum (CBC).
Prof Chege said this is among the many changes which will come with the Competency Based Curriculum to help instill integrity in the education sector.
She said the changes will help weed out teachers who lack proper conduct and work ethics.
Those in Private schools will also be required to have it for them to be allowed to teach.
A certificate of good conduct is issued by the Director Criminal Investigations (DCI) and is renewable after twelve months.
One will also have to part with kshs. 1,050 to acquire the document.
3. No room for editing
In the current internship application, teachers applying have found out that its very difficult to edit data once entered and submitted.
Previously teachers would edit submitted data incase they made errors. However candidates must be careful cause such option is not provided in the current recruitment.
