The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has advertised 154 vacancies for tutors in teacher training colleges and the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (Cemastea).
TTCs need 130 lecturers while 24 national trainers are required at the Cemastea. The new tutors are meant to cater for shortage created after the government phased out the certificate in teacher education and transitioned to the diploma in teacher education (DPTE) programme.
The advertisement is open to eligible teachers in secondary. TTCs require lecturers for various subjects with music requiring the most (18). To qualify for deployment at a TTC, interested teachers must be at a minimum grade of C4, T-Scale 9 and a senior master IV. The applicants must also hold a bachelor degree in education (science) or its equivalent and have participated in performance the appraisal process.
“Successful candidates will be deployed to any public TTC where the vacancy exists,” said TSC boss Nancy Macharia. To qualify for deployment at the Cemastea, interested teachers require the same qualifications. In addition, however, they must have served as Cemastea county trainers for at least three years.
Applications should be submitted through the TSC website or ‘teachers online’ before January 25 2022.
In an internal memo dated January 6 requesting for authority to advertise the positions, TSC Director of Staffing Rita Wahome said secondary schools that will be affected by exit of teachers will be re-staffed later.
TSC and the Ministry of Education has set a DPTE or diploma in early childhood teacher education as the minimum qualification for teaching under the competency-based teacher education (CBTE). The new admissions, coupled with new learning areas, has created demand more lecturers in TTCs. The situation has been worsened by retirements of lecturers and promotion of some of them to take up positions in secondary schools.
According to TSC data, there is a total shortage of 114,581 teachers in the country. Secondary schools are worst hit as they need 64,737 teachers while primary schools have a shortage of 49,653 teachers. Other areas that are understaffed are Kenya Institute of Special Education (26), Kenya Institute for the Blind (3), and curriculum support officers (50).
“Teacher shortage is compounded by mushrooming of schools, over enrolled classrooms which is as a result of government policy on attainment of 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary education,” Ms Macharia said in December during a conference for principals of national schools.
