Only 20,000 teachers moved since delocalisation policy was reversed, TSC says
Teachers Service Commission Dr Nancy Macharia before the National Assembly Education Committee at Parliament Buildings, Nairobi County on July 11, 2023.
A total of 46,962 teachers have sought to be transferred back to their home counties since the delocalisation policy was reversed in November, but only less than a half have been successful.
Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia told the National Assembly’s Education committee that only 20,055 of the requests have been effected.
Some 35,959 primary school teachers have applied for transfers, but the commission has only transferred 17,942. At the secondary level, 10,967 teachers have applied but due to lack of suitable replacements saw only 2,113 transferred.
The delocalisation policy was halted following an outcry from teachers and their unions who argued that it had a negative effect on families. The transfer of teachers who were considered to have over-stayed at the same work station started in 2018.
However, Ms Macharia yesterday warned that sending teachers back to their home counties will be counter-productive as it will affect staff balance in schools.
“We can’t balance staff across the counties. We’ll have inequitable distribution of teachers of unknown proportions because of historical issues, where some counties are more endowed with teachers than others,” Ms Macharia said.
Home counties
“We delocalised teachers for two years, how do we now do it [reversal] in a term without disrupting learning? We also want to make sure that children continue learning,” said Ms Macharia.
She explained that only teachers who apply to be posted back to their home counties are considered for transfers and that swapping places works best.
The chair of the committee, Julius Melly, asked TSC to expedite the transfers since many teachers waste time in regional offices seeking transfers instead of being productive in classrooms.
At the same time, Ms Macharia explained that of the 36,000 teachers TSC has recruited this year, 6,000 were a “balance” from those budgeted for recruitment by the Jubilee administration.
It emerged that Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties have failed to attract applicants for 210 teaching vacancies despite advertising in two recruitment windows. Ms Macharia attributed this to insecurity in the region, which has discouraged non-locals from seeking the positions.
“We’ve done everything, advertised in the newspapers and written to the local leadership. The vacancies were re-advertisement again in May but did not attract any applicants from the three regions. The same has been reserved for the region to be filled during the current recruitment or when an applicant is found, whichever is earlier,” said Ms Macharia.
Deal with insecurity
Marakwet West MP Timothy Toroitich called for the summoning of Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki to explain measures put in place to deal with insecurity in some regions so that learning is not affected.
Equally 3,507 promotional vacancies in senior administration in schools have failed to attract applications and have been re-advertised. The TSC boss denied that there are no qualified teachers for the positions, saying that qualified teachers are on the payroll but do not apply.
According to TSC data, there are 360 vacancies for principals, 385 for deputy principals, 2,637 for deputy headteachers and 125 for senior masters and senior teachers in arid and semi-arid areas.
Ms Macharia said that promotion of deserving teachers has been hampered by budgetary constraints and that the commission has only been promoting teachers to fill vacancies created by exits and common cadre promotions.
“The commission faced the challenge of promotion-based localisation in that promotion is now based on the number of vacancies in a specific county. Accordingly, teachers are only competing for vacancies in their own counties,” she said.