The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will deploy a total of 3,600 teachers from primary and secondary schools to serve in special schools and units.
While appearing before the Cohesion and Equal Opportunities Committee on Tuesday, TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia, Dr. Nancy Macharia said the deployment will be done starting September this year.
Macharia said other sets of deployments will happen in January and June next year. TSC is targeting teachers with Diplomas and Degree in Special Needs Education (SNE).
The Commission will deploy the teachers to address severe teacher shortage in special schools.
“Due to budget constraints, the Commission has developed a phased deployment of teachers to Special needs schools to address the shortage,” Macharia told the Committee led by Hon Adan Haji.
The Committee was also informed that the Special Needs Schools in the country were facing a shortage of 5,362 teachers.
Macharia explained that TSC hired and deployed 1,763 teachers to schools in the month of May 2024.
Primary school teachers with Diplomas in SNE will be posted to serve in primary school special schools and units inline with their areas of specialization.
Macharia also revealed that Readers Facilitation or Aid allowance has been introduced for teachers who are blind, deaf, mute or those having physical disabilities.
“Special school allowances is also another incentive introduced to teachers with special education skills,” said Ms Macharia.
She added: “These incentives are in addition to standard allowances such as hardship and commuter among others as one way of recognizing the additional challenges facing the teachers”.
She added that the Commission had also developed and implemented a unique staffing norm for special needs education schools.
Ms Macharia said the class size determined by the type and severity of disabilities of the learners is considered for each teacher.
“For example, the class size for mentally handicapped learners is set at four students while the class size for physically handicapped learners should have 15 students,” she added.
She added that the move is aimed at ensuring that teachers gave adequate attention to special needy learners.
“The less the number of special needs learners per teacher the better for provision of quality services,” Ms Macharia said.
The Committee’s vice chairperson Hon Liza Chelule who chaired the session commended the Commission for its efforts to better the welfare of teachers in special needs schools but added that there was still more needed to be done.
“The Committee visited special needs schools in parts of Coast, Nyanza, Western, and Rift Valley and established that the schools and teachers operated in deplorable conditions, said the Nakuru County MP.
Shinyalu MP Hon Fred Ikana said the suffering by teachers in special schools discouraged their colleagues from seeking jobs in the institutions leading to the shortage.
