The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been directed to submit data on all registered teachers aged above 40 years, in a move aimed at addressing persistent concerns of bias in the teacher recruitment process.
This follows concerns by Members of Parliament that the TSC has been neglecting a significant pool of experienced and qualified teachers simply because they are over 45 years old.
A 2019 ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court found the age restriction by the TSC as discriminatory and in violation of the right to equal opportunity.
“Give us data on registered teachers with registration certificates by the TSC that are over the age of 40 years so that we can quantify and check against resources needed for their recruitment,” Committee chairman Julius Melly told TSC senior officers during a session to consider the Budget Estimates for FY 2025/26.
Chairperson of the National Assembly Committee on Education Julius Kibiwot Melly.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
The TSC team, led by Finance Director Cheptumo Ayabei, noted that a candidate’s age is usually given prominence during the recruitment process, but the legislators were not convinced.
“The age factor is given prominence under the recruitment guidelines, such as a person who has stayed for long and aged is also given 30 more marks,” Mr Ayabei said.
The committee maintained that any teacher can be recruited up to and including two years before retirement because it is not their fault that they are not recruited beyond 45 years.
Outrage as State House takes over teacher recruitment
Prior to the recruitment of the aged teachers, the MPs disclaimed that such recruits be referred by the schools in which they have been teaching to ensure fairness in the hiring process.
Last year, the government converted 39,550 junior school teachers from contract to permanent terms, while an additional 8,378 primary school tutors were redeployed to teach in junior schools following upgrades.
But despite these efforts, a biting teacher shortage persists in the 20,000 junior schools, with TSC data showing a deficit of 72,422 tutors.
The shortage of staff in schools has resulted in overstretched teachers, overcrowding in classrooms and a lack of subject specialists required for proper implementation of the CBC.
“We have engaged the Treasury, and maybe because of fiscal space and constraints, the indication is that we are being given money to recruit interns and the conversion will not happen,” Mr Cheptumo said.
In the financial year starting July, the National Treasury had not allocated funds for the conversion of intern teachers to PnP, posing a challenge in the hiring of teachers aged over 45 years.
The TSC has been allocated Sh387.7 billion in the year starting July with a number of key areas not being funded or underfunded, including teachers' medical, dispensation of discipline cases and the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The current CBA is set to lapse at the end of June to pave the way for negotiations on the new CBA, which the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) recently hinted that it had proposed an upward review of hardship allowances.
This comes on the back of plans by the government to implement a 2019 report aimed at rationalising hardship zones to save Sh6 billion annually across the public service by reducing payments from Sh25 billion to Sh19 billion.
The review on hardship areas means that the monetary benefits accorded to civil servants, and specifically teachers, in those areas will be at stake.
The Kuppet, the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers have since accused the government of sidelining stakeholders in the decision that could potentially disrupt the education sector.
Teachers form the single largest group of government employees, with thousands of them stationed in areas currently gazetted as hardship zones, hence earning a hardship allowance which is equivalent to 30 per cent of their basic salary.
