Teacher interviews set for next week

Interviews for candidates who were shortlisted to take up the 11,574 teaching jobs advertised by the government will be conducted starting next week. 

The new teachers were to report to their stations in January when schools were expected to reopen, but with a change in the schedule, they may be required to report as soon as next month.

Whereas some regions have received the merit lists from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters, others are yet to get to draw up a schedule for the interviews.

Education officials in Meru County said they would complete the process before the planned reopening of schools in October. County Director of Education Milton Nzioka said the vacancies were determined by the individual needs of schools.

In Nyeri County, officials had not received the merit list from the TSC headquarters on Monday after the application period closed last week. According to the Central Regional TSC director, Juliet Kariuki, once the list is sent to the counties, they will prepare schedules for verification of the candidates’ documents. The applications were done online after which merit lists of successful candidates were expected to have been prepared by Sunday.

Private institutions

Ms Kariuki said that the interviews will be completed by October 2. The interviews are yet to begin in Nakuru County, with the TSC county director Fredrick Ng'ang'a saying they were yet to come up with a schedule of the interviews. It is understood that the interviews will be conducted between September 28 and October 2.

Read: Teachers ordered back to school to prepare for reopening

Managers of private institutions said they were uncertain about meeting the Ministry of Health guidelines on social distancing because they had not yet received the Sh7 billion concessionary loans they had been promised by the government.

“Private schools have not yet built new classrooms because we have no money, which means we cannot recruit new teachers. We are still waiting for the final word from the government,” said Mr Isaiah Mbaabu, Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) vice-chairman.

In Kisii County, education officials said they had not received the list of shortlisted candidates. TSC county director Jayne Mwaniki said she had no information on the recruitment since the applications were done online.

In Vihiga County, interviews for 107 primary school teachers and for 74 secondary schools ones have begun. TSC county director Irene Njogu said the processing of the merit lists had been concluded.

The interviews will be held between September 28 and October 2 in Kakamega County. TSC county director John Nzioka, said the merit list will be forwarded to the counties by Thursday.

Constitutional provisions

To fill vacancies in secondary schools, 257 teachers will be recruited, while 260 will be recruited for primary schools.

In Kisumu County, TSC county director Ibrahim Rugut said 180 and 142 for primary and secondary teachers respectively will be employed.

"We will notify the teachers on September 28. The interviews will be done at sub-county level for both the primary and secondary school teachers," he said.

Migori County TSC director Beatrice Lukalu said her office was yet to receive a merit list after some changes were made to the initial programme. It was initially planned to be processed by Wednesday but Mrs Lukalu said minor changes were made to conform to constitutional provisions.

“The short-listing exercise was slightly changed to meet constitutional requirements of seven days. We are in the process of shortlisting candidates and will be able to produce the list before the end of next week,” Mrs Lukalu said. Taita Taveta County TSC director Peter Mugo also said he had not received the merit list.

“Once we get the list, we will invite the applicants,” he said.

Reported by David Muchunguh, Gitonga Marete, Regina Kinogu, Eric Matara, Benson Ayienda, Elizabeth Ojina, Derick Luvega, Ian Byron, Benson Amadala and Winnie Atieno