There will likely be a staffing crisis when schools fully reopen on January 4 as more than 17,000 teachers will be forced to work from home because they are either in the vulnerable age group or have underlying medical conditions.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has allowed teachers who are 58 years old and above and those with a history of chronic illnesses to work from home. Most of these teachers work in primary schools which are already understaffed.
More teachers are also set to retire at the end of the year. This will put immense pressure on those left in the classroom to take learners through a crash programme designed by the Ministry of Education.
The teachers will also have to deal with a heavier workload as they will be required to teach more streams. In schools that have high enrolment, classes will be split to allow for social distancing. Teaching in shifts will also be an option for some schools.
According to records at the TSC, there are 16,645 teachers who are over 58. Of these, primary schools have 14,333 teachers who will need to take precautionary measures to avoid contracting Covid-19. This means that TSC will need to employ an equal number of teachers to replace them as they will retire in two years.
Curriculum support officers
Teachers in secondary schools who are over 58 are 2,651 while there are 209 curriculum support officers and 352 tutors in teacher training colleges. Those who are set to retire in the month of December are 479. The work-from-home directive was issued by CEO Nancy Macharia last week.
TSC regional directors have been instructed to identify those with underlying medical conditions to facilitate their working from home. They will be required to provide documentary evidence.
The teachers will need to liaise with their medical cover provider, AON Minet, on the disclosures they have or details from their medical history.
Ironically, although schools are understaffed, the commission has 350,251 teachers in its register but not on its payroll. These are also more than can be absorbed by the private schools.
“If this rising number is not tamed through employment, public confidence in the nobility of the teaching profession will be eroded,” said Mrs Macharia in a report she presented to the Senate Committee on Education last week. She said the commission requires Sh17 billion to recruit more teachers to bridge the staffing gaps.
Ordinarily, TSC progressively replaces teachers who retire, quit, are dismissed or die while in service. Last month, it recruited 6,574 teachers to replace those who had left earlier in the year and 5,000 to fill new vacancies.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) on Wednesday asked TSC to employ 50,000 teachers next year. Secretary-General Akelo Misori said the 12,000 teacher interns that the commission is planning to employ next year will not be enough to help schools handle the crisis.
“There is need to recruit more teachers, taking into account the new demands to mitigate new learning arrangements occasioned by Covid-19 such as social distancing and learning in shifts,” he said at a press briefing in Nairobi. He put the number of those over 58 at 25,000.
Mr Misori said 36 teachers have died of Covid-19 since schools opened in October 12. Several others have been infected and received treatment.
“If the current trend of deaths and resignations continue, another 4,000 teachers might leave due to natural attrition or departure for other jobs,” he said.
“We don’t want a situation where teachers will start working from home and then penalised or be accused of absconding duty,” said Mr Misori.
He added that currently, head teachers and principals have no direction on how to implement the work from home directive. At the moment, he said, many teachers who deserve the leave of absence have been denied permission to stay away from schools.
Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba asked the National Treasury to immediately release pension funds for all teachers who have left service in recent months.
He said the commission should give teachers above the age of 55 years the freedom to retire at their own convenience.
“We urge the commission to open a window for teachers above 55 years who wish to retire from service,” he said.
Mr Milemba said that, in preparation for early retirement, the commission should institute a robust succession management plan for headteachers, their deputies and heads of departments aged 55 and above who opt to retire.
The commission has been employing 5,000 additional teachers annually to plug the staffing gaps. However, this is way below its targeted 12,626 a year in the 2019–2023 Strategic Plan that aims at greatly reducing the deficit in teacher numbers. The situation has been aggravated by the demand for more teachers created by the 100 percent transition policy.
When it was introduced in 2018, the policy alone created a shortage of 26,804 teachers. However, the TSC has not been able to actualise its strategy due to limited funding from the National Treasury.
“Instead, the commission has so far only employed 23,700 teachers since 2017 as opposed to the target of 50,504 teachers over the period,” Mrs Macharia said.
Mrs Macharia said the commission is in the process of engaging 12,000 teacher interns to its work force.
