The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will recruit 30,000 teachers by January 2023 to help address the junior secondary school (JSS) menace.
To enhance the capacity of the teaching force, President William Ruto recently, during a State House meeting, announced that the government will recruit 30,000 additional teachers by January.
Both primary and secondary school teachers will be employed on permanent and pensionable terms as well as on internship terms.
It was agreed that because the junior secondary curriculum is secondary, during the recruitment of the 30,000 teachers, priority will be given to unemployed teachers who have qualifications to teach in secondary schools.
These are teachers who hold a Diploma in or a Bachelor of Education (secondary option). However in the meeting the parties agreed that many of the teachers will be recruited on internship terms.
TSC will also deploy secondary school teachers who were trained on CBC to teach junior secondary school classes domiciled in primary schools.
TSC is expected to advertise the teaching vacancies this month so that the teachers can report when schools open on January 23, 2023.
The Commission has set a Diploma certificate as the minimum requirement for teachers who want to teach in junior secondary.
According to TSC a teacher must have requirements for recruitment to secondary school for one to teach Grade 7, 8 and 9 learners.
This means a teacher must have a Diploma or a Degree certificate in secondary option. The teacher must also have scored at least a mean grade of C+ (plus) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).
In addition the teacher must have at least C+ (plus) in the two teaching subjects. TSC has offered to retool the teachers for junior secondary school teaching.
Already 60,000 secondary school teachers were trained on Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). The training of teachers on junior secondary happened in May this year.
President Ruto instructed the Ministry of Education, Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and TSC “to work on modalities of fast-tracking retooling teachers to ensure the country has sufficient teachers who are compliant with CBC”.
TSC has planned to retool teachers who will handle the junior secondary classes in January next year.
The Commission targets to train teachers on Languages, Pure Sciences, Applied Sciences, Mathematics, Humanities and Technical subjects.
The training of Grade 7 teachers will involve these subjects and areas offered in junior secondary school section.
i. Languages – English, Kiswahili, Foreign and Indigenous Languages and Kenya Sign Language.
ii. Pure Sciences -Integrated Science Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Health Education.
iii. Applied Sciences – Agriculture, Home science and computer studies
iv. Mathematics.
iv. Humanities – Social Studies (Citizenship, Geography, History) Religious Studies, (CRE, IRE, Hindu, HRE and PPI) and live skills.
v. Technical subjects and Creative Arts – Pre vocational and pre career Business studies, music, sports and physical education Home science.