TSC urgently requires Sh70bn to recruit 98,461 teachers
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has said that a total of Sh70 billion would be required to recruit 98,461 teachers for Junior Secondary and High School. According to the Teachers’ employer, this will reduce the current shortage in public schools.
Outgoing TSC Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, has at the same time denied allegations that her commission abdicated its recruitment role and left it to politicians during funerals.
Appearing before the Senate National Cohesion, Equal Opportunities and Regional Integration, chaired by Marsabit lawmaker Mohammed Chute, Macharia told the committee that the commission has so far recruited 68,313 teachers for JSS on permanent and pensionable terms.
Macharia’s disclosure of the Sh70 billion came after Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah questioned about the budgetary deficit to be able to discharge constitutional obligation to ensure that every child.
“If we were to have Sh70 billion, we would need to satisfy the schools optimally. In Junior Secondary, we have a shortage of 72,442 teachers. In Secondary school, the 8-4-4 system, we have 26, 039 shortage of teachers,” said Macharia.
Macharia disclosed that the commission recruited some 9,000 teachers in the 2022/2023 financial year, 39,550 teachers in the 2024/2025 financial year and a batch of 20,000 teacher interns who reported in January this year.
“This brought the total targeted recruitment to 68,550 positions. Out of these, 68,313 teachers have so far been recruited and deployed across the country, leaving a total of 237 vacancies unfilled due to a lack of applicants,” said Macharia.
According to Macharia, vacancies comprises of 56 permanent and pensionable vacancies in Mandera County and 181 intern vacancies in Mandera (114), Marsabit (34) and Wajir (33) respectively.
Macharia further told the Mohammed Chute-led committee that recruitment of teachers is conducted at the sub-county, which is aimed at according all Kenyans equal opportunity for employment.
Of the 68,313 Junior Secondary School teachers recruited, the Kalenjin community takes the lion’s share with 10,769, followed by Luhyas (10,466), Kamba (9,557), Kikuyu (8,799), Luo (8,721) and the Abagusii at 6,796 respectively.
The Ameru (4,087), Mijikenda (1,851), Maasai (1,741), Embu (883), Tharaka (608), Mbeere (526), Teso (510), Taita (435), Somali (347), Pokot (204), Samburu (136), Turkana (131) and Duruma (115) respectively.
However, the Senators hard pressed the TSC boss as to why in the recruitment process, they abdicated their role and allowed politicians to run amok and dish out the recruitment letters.
Senators Chute (Marsabit) and Omtatah (Busia) took Macharia to task on what happens to the teachers who were recruited at funerals by politicians.
“How many of these 68,000-plus Junior Secondary teachers were employed by politicians, and how many were employed by professionals in the commission? After they are employed, are they under TSC or the office of the president?” posed Chute.
In her response, Macharia said: “We also saw this in the news. Our recruitment is well guided by our policies and guidelines.”
This response annoyed Senator Omtatah, who said that the response was akin to sweeping the issue under the carpet.
“You need to answer the question with a lot of seriousness. You cannot brush it off. It is a matter of public notoriety, and people are on your payroll, having been recruited at funerals. It is a fact we have,” fumed Omtatah.
He added: “If it was done against your policy, you should have resigned. That is what serious civil servants do. When politicians encroach on your stuff, you pull the rug from under their feet. It is a fact that it happened, let us not sweep it under the carpet.”
However, Macharia defended herself, saying that her commission did not recruit the teachers through the politicians but at the sub-county level as per the TSC guidelines.
“We did not give these papers to any politician. It is a bad thing. We have our guidelines, which we send out. As the CEO, it is a bad thing when you see things happening. However, TSC was not involved in it. We are putting facts as they are,” said Macharia.
She went on to say: “TSC does recruitment at the sub-county, and the 68,313 were strictly recruited by TSC. The Office of the President does not recruit for TSC. The commission should be left to do its work on recruiting using the budget that we have. We would want to run a professional agency.”
She explained that TSC took the number of classes of JSS because they are domiciled in primary schools.
“The allocation given nationally is divided among 47 counties. Each county will get a proportion depending on the numbers. The number given to the counties will further be subdivided equally within the sub-county,” said Macharia.
