The Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) has announced another round of promotions for 36,505 teachers as the government seeks to quell the disquiet over job stagnation in the service.
Speaking during the ongoing Kenya Primary Schools Headteachers Association conference in Mombasa, TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia said prior to the recent funding, the commission last received cash for the promotion of teachers in 2011.
“We thank the government for providing Sh1 billion in the financial year 2023/2024 for the promotion of teachers. The commission recently advertised 36,505 vacancies for teacher promotions out of which 17,914 posts will go to primary school teachers across the grades,” said Ms Macharia.
At the same time, the TSC boss said the commission had failed to attract enough applicants for some positions even after lowering the requirements.
“This is more prevalent in Special Needs Education where we are having a serious shortage. I wish to encourage those who have been invited for the interviews from December 4 to ensure that they attend without failure,” she said.
Ms Macharia also urged all unemployed teachers to apply for advertised jobs in any part of the country, cautioning them against only seeking jobs in their home counties.
Teachers Service Commission boss Nancy Macharia (centre) is cheered by teachers during the third day of the Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association Conference in Mombasa on Thursday, November 9.
Photo credit: Kevin Odit | Nation Media Group
“Do not shy off from taking up responsibilities. The President William Ruto government allocated us funds to recruit 56,000 teachers in the past year, majority of whom were posted to junior secondary schools,” she added.
Ms Macharia cited the recently concluded recruitment exercise, where a total of 1,123 vacancies across the country were not filled.
“This should not be the case when we have many unemployed teachers in other counties who could have filled these positions,” she said.
In Rift Valley, out of the 17,393 vacancies, 45 were not filled. Kajiado had 1,092 vacancies but five were not filled. Samburu had 468 vacancies of which nine were not filled, while Turkana had 754 opportunities but 31 were not filled.
In North Eastern TSC advertised 2,126 vacancies, with 795 still open. Garissa still has 199 vacancies while Mandera has 385 out of 658 advertised are still vacant. In Wajir TSC advertised 958 positions but 211 are yet to be taken up.
In the Eastern region, 10,614 opportunities were advertised but 72 are yet to be filled. Isiolo still has of eight vacancies while Marsabit has 64.
There were 4,607 vacancies in the Coast region, and 177 are yet to be taken. Kwale had 1,130 vacancies and 39 are still open, Lamu had 378 and 46 remain unfilled while Tana River had for 506 positions and 92 are yet to be filled.
In the Central region, TSC advertised 6,007 vacancies, of which 34 remain unfilled. Murang’a had 1,580 positions with 25 still vacant while Nyeri had 1,133 positions open and nine are yet to be filled.
Ms Macharia said the commission ,through a multi-agency approach, has also retooled all primary teachers 229,292 on the Competency-Based Curriculum.
Last month TSC completed the training of 56,928, teachers including 48,550 newly recruited junior school teachers and 8,378 teachers who were deployed from primary schools.
