The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has invited retiring school heads to sign a one and a half contract that will see their term in office extended. Details show that some school heads who were retiring by 30th June 2021 have had their term extended on contract terms of one and a half years to two years.
However TSC did not make signing of the contract mandatory but at will. In January TSC appointed 2,111 Deputy head teachers to Head teacher position who now fall on Grade CS (TSC scale 10).
TSC outline the following requirements for one to be appointed to be Head teacher (Grade CS/TSC scale 10)
1. be serving under career progression guidelines;
11. have served in the grade of Deputy Head Teacher II (Grade C4/T-Scale 9) for a minimum period of three (3) years;
iii. have served as Deputy Head Teacher for a minimum period of three (3) years;
1v. have satisfactory rating in the performance appraisal; and v. meet the requirement of Chapter six (6) of the constitution;
NB: Bachelors Degree in a relevant area will be an added advantage Applicants shall be required to upload the following documents during applications:
a. Letter of appointment to the current grade.
b. Letter of appointment/deployment to the current responsibility.
c. Certificate of Good Conduct from Director of Criminal Investigations.
d. Clearance Certificate by Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
e. Clearance Application from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
f. Clearance Certificate from a Credit Reference Bureau.
g. Tax Compliance Certificate from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)
TSC is currently facing a crisis in schools after details emerged that at least 25,000 teachers are set to retire over two years (by 2022) and most of these are school heads. In November 2020 the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (Kuppet} revealed a report which showed that half of these tutors are above 59 years and therefore are due for retirement in June 2021.
“Our finding is that as of November 2020, the teaching service has 25,000 teachers aged 58 and above … meaning Kenya is facing a deep teacher shortage that calls for radical measures to address,” said Kuppet secretary general Akello Misori.
Now I TSC said it would require Sh17 billion to hire 12,000 teachers in 2021. “We call for urgent plans for the hiring of at least 50,000 teachers over the next one year (2021) and at least 15,000 per year between 2021 and 2026,” said Mr Misori.
The commission’s target has not been met due to inadequate budgetary provision. The Treasury allocated the TSC Sh3.2 billion for teacher recruitment in the year starting July 2021 despite a request of Sh20.2 billion thus hurting its plans of increasing teacher numbers.
In June this year the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani proposed Kshs. 2.5 billion allocation to support recruitment of additional teachers in the Financial year 2021/2022. In total the Teachers Service Commission {TSC) was awarded 281.7 billion to support its annual budget.
In June TSC released its plan on how it will employ teachers in the next three years. In the plan contained in the Programme-Based Budget 2021, TSC will employ 15,000 secondary school teachers starting this financial year. The Commission said it will employ at least 5,000 teachers annually in the next three years to curb looming crisis in secondary schools.
TSC also said it will engage the services of 5,500 interns on a one-year contract every year to plug staffing gaps in schools. However only 2,000 interns will be posted to primary schools each year. TSC has advertised a total of 3,914 replacements for primary and secondary schools to replace teachers who exited service in its July 2021 advert.
In the advert TSC said 2,987 posts will go to primary schools while 927 will go to secondary schools. TSC also advertised 5,000 teaching posts for secondary schools, however 1,000 posts will go to practicing P1 teachers who have bachelors degree with C + in KCSE and C + in the two teaching subjects.
The 1,000 successful P1 teacher applicants will be deployed to teach in high school. TSC directed qualified candidates to submit their applications online through the Commission’s website, www.tsc. go.keunder ‘Careers’ or teacheronline.tsc.go.ke not later than 12th July, 2021.
More teachers are required under the government’s 100 percent transition from primary school to secondary school. In 2019, a total of 102,918 trained but jobless
In 2019, a total of 102,918 trained but jobless teachers applied for the 10,300 internship positiions the TSC advertised. TSC is yet to advertise internship posts this year.
