The Teachers Service Commission (TSC), in its 2021/2022 annual report, listed teachers’ shortage, lack of professionalism and slow adoption of IT skills by teachers as some of the main challenges it is faced with .
The report observes that alcohol and drug abuse, desertion of duty and immoral behaviour affect the effective delivery of the curriculum.
More worrying is the extent of mental health issues afflicting the profession with TSC saying one out of every four teachers seeking outpatient medical services exhibit a mental health disorder.
“The commission has noted with concern that a number of employees with mental health-related cases has been on the rise affecting the quality of curriculum delivery. To this end, the commission has continued to liaise with its stakeholders and partners in sensitising its employees on mental health illness. The commission has also enhanced employees’ medical schemes to facilitate better attention of mental illness related cases,” the report reads.
Teachers are covered under a medical scheme serviced by Minet Kenya. At the time, TSC had about 346,000 teachers on its payroll. T
he commission also has staff in its secretariat offices. This year, 10,000 teachers have been recruited. This excludes the 20,000 interns who are not covered by the medical scheme.
Last month, TSC published a list of 36 teachers who had been de-registered for various offences. Last October, 44 teachers were removed from the register while 73 others were removed in July.
TSC has been struggling to plug staffing gaps but huge deficits still remain as more new schools are established while existing ones are expanded to accommodate rising enrolment ever since the 100 per cent transition policy from primary to secondary school was started in 2018.
Over the period covered by the report, TSC hired 11,859 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms while 6,000 interns were recruited.
In the 2023 Budget Policy Statement, TSC has been allocated Sh322.733 billion where Sh3.8 million is meant for the hiring of 20,000 new teachers to support junior secondary school which was rolled out in January but faces a serious staffing challenge.
Sh11.1 billion will be for salaries of the 20,000 interns and 10,000 teachers hired on permanent and pensionable terms in February this year.
During the period under review, 93,679 teachers for Grades One to Six were trained, bringing the total number of teachers trained in the competency-based curriculum (CBC) and competency-based assessment to 229,292.
Additionally, 55,125 teachers were trained for implementation of junior secondary school.
The TSC has also cited insecurity in some parts of the country and unfavourable working conditions in arid and semi-arid areas and hard-to-staff areas as challenges.
According to the TSC, 149,512 teachers enrolled for the controversial Teacher Professional Development which was initially opposed by unions.
The report shows that TSC has decentralised its services to eight regional offices, 47 county offices and 338 sub-county offices.
TSC should add delocalisation as one of the causes of mental health and poor curriculum delivery.
Let TSC kindly take the teachers back home for them to be settled psychologically,mentally and physically.
Am one of the teachers waiting for promotion. It’s been long and am patient
Nowadays,being a teacher is like committing a crime.A teacher takes evident disturbing issues to the employer(TSC) but he/she can’t get help because of the nature of dictatorship which is there.
Humanity ended long time ago…..and as a result,depression and bitterness occurs and the behavior of some teachers can show it all.
Then you start talking about problems that lead to poor performance while some are being brought about by the same people who are listing them???
Kindly listen to teachers and help them before the worst happens.
Delocalization is the number major problem.
So far how has delocalization helped learners?Is it practical to deliver when one has family problems to be solved but the teacher is delocalized very far?Now that trs are delocalized to be punished and to ensure that they have no side hustles in their locality,how far has the country gone economically?There is no need to pretend that all is well when things are getting worse, a delocalized tr will just be in school physically,prepare documents,attend classes,put ticks and wrongs in learner’s books so that you have no grip to hold to punish them.phyisically in class but mentally and spiritually not in class.No morale at all.The education committee that banned delocalization knew what they were doing.
Delocalisation is the number one.you throw teachers to muranga your home or ukambani.is it a punishment?
I’m just wondering why delocalization and low pay are not among the issues listed. The last time TSC and SRC reviewed teachers’ pay was in 2017. Kindly TSC address the above issues including promotions and teachers will be a happy lot.
My English teacher taught me a proverb….. Pretenders are worse than murderers.
Delocalisation is the major reason behind poor curriculum delivery.
Tsc expects a teacher who is psychologically,mentally,physically…….. poorly paid to perform???
It will wait until the end of ages!!!
Let them solve the logical problems that teachers are facing and poor curriculum delivery will be a past perfect tense to most teachers.
Authority is God given and let them remember that they will give an account on how they exercised it when they were given.
Stagnation of teachers in the same grade for so long, have contributed to poor curriculum delivery.
Once upon a time teaching was a noble profession but today
Teachers job group stagnation after taking loans to upgrade their pedagogical skills…is another major thing affecting teachers mental wellness…
Delocalization is the elephant in the room. While some teachers got their transfers, others are still suffering with pending transfers. Why should the TSC transfer a section of teachers and leave others behind. Why should one be forced to work in foreign land with little pay? Spending all the salary on rent and fare.
Mire to ut, is that the mental health problem is also caused by Delocolization which has not been takled or sortd out 100%
ᴰᵉˡᵒᶜᵃˡⁱᶻᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵖᵒᵒʳ ʳᵉⁿᵘᵐᵉʳᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵃʳᵉ ᵏᵉʸ ᶠᵃᶜᵗᵒʳˢ ᵗᵒ ᵖᵒᵒʳ ⁱᵐᵖˡᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗᵃᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵘʳʳⁱᶜᵘˡᵘᵐ,ʰᵒʷ ᶜᵃⁿ ᵃ ᵈᵉˡᵒᶜᵃˡⁱᶻᵉᵈ ᵗᵉᵃᶜʰᵉʳ ᵈᵉˡⁱᵛᵉʳ?ʰᵒʷ ᶜᵃⁿ ᵃ ᵖᵒᵒʳˡʸ ᵖᵃⁱᵈ ᵗᵉᵃᶜʰᵉʳ ᵈᵉˡⁱᵛᵉʳ?
Why cant they get Ecd diploma teachers who are still conversant with cbc ie who started cbc 6years back
Delocalization is one of the major cause of mental illness. Tsc should take us back to our respective counties.
Mental health is real how can someone be forced to work under unfavorable environment with given medical condition?
That was then but now delocalization has killed it all, unless something is done now,no learning that’s taking place in schools, teachers are not motivated on this issue.Promotion from one grade to another which should be accompanied with handsome remuneration takes long before being I mplemented!!!
Mental health caused by dictating boses