Documents showed that the government this year provided Sh31 million for teacher competency, conduct, and performance and Sh662 million for service delivery reengineering.
However, no monies were provided to fund reforms and innovation in the education sector.
The commission had requested Sh721 million for teacher competency, conduct, and performance, Sh866 million for reforms and innovation and Sh970 million for service delivery and reengineering.
The funds for reforms and innovations were meant to fund projects such as performance contracting, teacher performance appraisal and development, the roll-out of teachers’ professional development policy framework and teacher’ professional development framework.
The trade unions have already threatened nationwide teachers’ strikes, arguing the government was rushing to implement the projects without proper planning.
“However, in the case of TSC, the recruitment has been largely constrained by the limited budgetary provisions from the national government,” the strategic plan states.
Others are Teacher Performance, Appraisal and Development instruments and review of the Code of Regulations and Conduct for teachers, which are meant to improve the country’s education level into a world-class sector.
“The TSC requires 500 new internal staff to effectively execute its mandate at counties. These reforms will address various approaches in curriculum implementation, guarantee equity and exclusivity in the management of the teacher resource,” the strategic plan said.
There was also a conflict of roles and mandate between the TSC and other stakeholders at the National Government Level. The commission agrees that there is a lack of inadequate enforcement capacity in public and private learning institutions.
As of June 2018, the TSC was responsible for 317,069 teachers deployed to 30,892 public educational institutions.
These include 217,291 teachers serving in 22,263 public primary schools and 99,778 teachers serving in 8,629 public post-primary institutions.
The learner population served by these teachers presently stands at eight million in public primary schools and two million in public post-primary schools.
Over five years, the government recruited 28,843 teachers. The primary schools benefited by 8,390 while 20,453 were recruited for secondary schools.
“It is a clear indication that the government funded the recruitment of approximately 5,000 teachers every year. We should hire heavily in order to sustain reforms, innovations and put our education on a competitive scale globally,” a Nairobi principal said.
Currently, the TSC estimates an overall teacher shortage of 96,345. This includes 38,054 in primary schools and 58,291 in post-primary schools.
