The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started employment of teachers on permanent and pensionable (pnp) terms through replacements.
However unemployed teachers will have to find ways on how to get the employment letters through their Members of Parliament (MPs).
The Commission has issued the over 290 legislatures as well as other politicians aligned with government with teacher employment letters.
Last week TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia while addressing Knut delegates during their Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) in Mombasa said a total of 8,707 teachers will be employed on pnp terms through replacement in January.
According to Macharia these are replacement jobs for teachers who have died, retired or resigned and not new positions within the service.
She said holders of the Primary Teacher Education (PTE) certificate popularly known as P1 will compete for 5,862 vacancies.
Macharia said 2,824 vacancies will be for secondary schools and 21 vacancies for junior secondary schools.
However the Commission has started on wrong footing by allowing politicians to oversee the exercise.
Last year TSC had received sh 2.5 billion allocation from the Treasury in September 2023 to employ through replacement a total of 6,000 teachers.
However the Commission did not publicly advertise the vacancies but silently allocated the slots to politicians and MPs to fill in their constituencies.
Some teachers parted with upto sh 400,000 to secure employment. The replacements lacked merit but cronyism and other forms of corruption persisted.
It is believed that this is Kenya Kwanza’s move to reward politicians who are helping in championing its agenda.
TSC went back to the dark old days where politicians interfered with functions of the Commission including teacher recruitment that saw massive corruption and discrimination.
Some of the teachers got employment on permanent and pensionable terms without first going through internship process.
The backdoor recruitment of teachers was led by Ezekiel Machogu who was then the Cabinet Secretary for Education.
Machogu was captured live issuing employment letters to teachers in a function in Kisii county. Another politician Sylvanus Osoro was also found with bunch of employment letters in his house.
The protests by Kenyan youth popularly known as Gen Z over bad governance led president to dismiss his cabinet including the former CS Ezekiel Machogu.
According to TSC, teachers must first be interned for at least a year before getting employment on permanent terms.
The Teacher Internship Programme is a one (1) year programme meant to equip and sustain competencies of persons entering the teaching service.
The programme targets unemployed registered teachers to be assigned to learning institutions where their teaching experience will be enhanced through mentorship, coaching and exposure to practical teaching experience.
The internship period will be for twelve months though majority of the current intern teachers have served for two years.
Teacher internship is not a remunerative engagement. However, interns attached to Junior Secondary schools will be eligible for a monthly stipend of Kshs. 20 ,000/=.
The stipend will be paid subject to statutory deductions like NHIF, Housing levy, and NSSF where applicable.
On successful completion of the Internship Programme, teacher interns will be awarded a certificate.
TSC has recently completed recruitment of 20,000 teachers on internship terms for junior secondary schools. The teachers will be posted to schools in January.
A total of 46,000 teachers also serving on internship terms have been confirmed to pnp terms and will work on new terms from January 2025.
