President William Ruto has urged Members of Parliament to keep off the current recruitment for teachers.
The President urged politicians not to politicize the hiring of 30,000 teachers across the country saying the move will derail the process.
“Let us not introduce many variables to the process; let us give the Teachers Service Commission space to do its job.” President Ruto said.
President Ruto spoke on Thursday during the Annual Kimalel Goat Auction and Cultural Fair in Baringo South, Baringo County.
Present were Cabinet Secretaries Simon Chelugui (MSMEs), Florence Bore (Labour), Governors Benjamin Cheboi (Baringo), Wesley Rotich (Elgeyo Marakwet), Susan Kihika (Nakuru) and a host of MPs.
President William Ruto’s warning to politicians to keep off the planned recruitment of 35,000 teachers is a timely intervention.
This is the work.of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), a constitutional agency whose mandate is teacher recruitment and management.
Indeed, TSC is the teachers’employer on the government’s behalf and carries out not just recruitment, but also staffing and continuous professional training to further enhance teachers’ skills.
There is absolutely no reason why MPs and other politicians should be allowed to usurp the key role of this specialised agency. Most of them lack the know-how to perform this professional job.
Their involvement would be a recipe for confusion and chaos. It is the TSC that has the vital data on teacher shortages across the country.
Allowing MPs to get involved in the recruitment of teachers would not only be unconstitutional, but is also uncalled for. The politicians are good at fighting for their people’s interests, but given a chance would tend to favour the places that they represent.
As the people’s representatives, they have a right to know about a vital assignment such as the recruitment of teachers to ease a nationwide shortage as schools reopen next month.
However, there is no role for them to play in the interviewing and recruitment of the additional teachers.
The MPs have the constitutional mandate of making laws, representing voters and performing oversight over the use of public resources for the people’s benefit. Instead of seeking to get involved in hiring teachers, the lawmakers should monitor and ensure that the job is done fairly.
If the TSC bungles such a task, then MPs would point it outand demand that any anomalies be corrected. They should, however, step away from the recruitment stage.