Update: TSC to employ 5,000 new teachers, effects January, 2019 pay

The Teachers Service Commission,TSC, has announced that they will employ more teachers to take care of the increased workload from the 2019 form one admissions. The TSC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Nancy Njeri Macharia, says 5000 secondary school teachers will be employed this month in line with 100 per cent transition policy.

Macharia said the Commission is working on modalities and will announce the vacancies as soon as possible. “We are working on modalities so we advertise. When we get the 5,000, then it means that we have taken care of Form 2,” Dr Macharia said.

Macharia spoke at Ngong Township Primary School in Kajiado. She was accompanied by Early Learning and Basic Education Principal Secretary, Dr Belio Kipsang.

Speaking at Ngong, the TSC boss said they hope the government will allocate more funds in the 2019-2020 budget so as to hire more teachers to handle those joining Form 1 this year.

“With all these things in place, the competency based curriculum will be on course and the transition will be taken care of,” said Macharia.

She reported that about 268,000 teachers have so far been trained to handle the Competency Based Curriculum, CBC, up to Grade 3.

According to records at TSC, the country has a shortfall of 155,605 teachers. The Commission had last year requested the government to allocate funds for hiring 20,000 teachers, annually, over five years to close the gap.

Meanwhile, TSC has paid the teachers’ salaries for January 2019. The Commission, though, has not effected the statutory pension scheme deductions as was earlier expected. On a positive note, TSC has paid the annual leave allowance for 2018; that has been included in the January, 2019 pay. Another deduction that has not been effected is the housing scheme which incidentally was suspended by the court. Some banks like Equity have already reflected the salaries.

Dr Nancy Macharia also paid a courtesy call to the office of the Orange Democratic Movement’s leader, HE Raila Odinga, at Capitol Hill Square today. During the meeting the two held discussions on issues to do with education and the challenges that teachers face.