The government plan to employ 30,000 teachers in January got a boost following the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s meeting with officials from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Ministry of Education (MOE).
On Tuesday 8, November a team from TSC led by its CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia and another from MOE led by its Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang visited the DP at his office for talks on matters education.
The meeting came after TSC said talks regarding the employment of teachers have began and that it will give a way forward on how the recruitment exercise will be done.
TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia who spoke during the celebrations to mark World Teachers Day at the Kenya School of Government in Nairobi said teachers should expect good things going forward.
“Consultations are ongoing with the Presidency on teacher recruitment and we shall be giving updates of the progress as we go along. Be assured that the Kenyan teacher can only expect good things going forward. We shall be telling you how to go on with this recruitment as per the Kenya Kwanza Charter,” said Macharia.
Last month TSC also met with TSC Regional and County Directors to work out on success of the teacher recruitment.
After the meeting this week the Deputy President said that the Kenya Kwanza government will focus in addressing teachers and students matters.
“The well-being of students and teachers is a key focus for the Kenya Kwanza Government. Today, We discussed matters Education including teachers’ recruitment,” said Gachagua.
TSC is yet to give statement on what was agreed. Last month the DP had a meeting with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
The DP agreed with KRA that more taxes will be collected to help in teacher recruitment exercise.
“We had a meeting with Kenya Revenue Authority and asked them to ensure they raise at least sh 3 trillion this financial year to enable us recruit more teachers and finance other government programmes,” said Gachagua.
In the education charter signed with stakeholders in the education sector in June, President William Ruto committed to “ensure that the current teacher shortage of 116,000 is fully bridged within two financial years by employing 58,000 teachers at a cost of Sh25 billion per year”.
President William Ruto already affirmed that his government will employ 30,000 teachers starting January next year.
Dr. Ruto said some of the teachers to will be employed on permanent and pensionable terms while others will be interns.
The President who spoke on Wednesday 12th October after he officially opened the Komarock South Primary School funded by the Embakasi Central NG-CDF said his government will fulfill the employment promise he made to teachers.
“We have agreed with TSC that from January they will have recruited 30,000 more teachers. Some will be employed on permanent terms while some will be interns so that we progressively bridge the teacher gap,” said Ruto.
Dr. Ruto noted that this will mark the first phase of absorbing more than 116,000 teachers to bridge the existing gap in schools. The plight of unemployed teachers was a key campaign issue for Kenya Kwanza.
There are at least 350,000 teachers who are yet to be absorbed into TSC payroll.
During the last recruitment in July, more than 356,000 jobless teachers applied for the 14,460 vacancies that had been advertised by the TSC.
Post-primary teaching vacancies attracted the highest number of applicants, with 219,311 teachers expressing interest in the 4,000 declared vacancies.
Of the 1,000 new vacancies advertised for primary school teachers, the commission received 136,833 applications.
