Schools grabbing good public teachers

The growing number of private schools may be causing teacher shortages in public schools.

In Central Province, of the 949,560 pupils enrolled in primary schools last year, 125,772 (13.24 per cent) were in private schools.

This year, 157,538 (16.62 per cent) of the 948,560 pupils are enrolled in 126 the schools, sometimes referred to as academies.

One in every five pupils in primary schools in Central Province is in an academy.

Government freeze

An increasing number of teachers are leaving public employment to feed the demand in the private sector. With the public sector freeze on employment, the situation can only get worse.

An official of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa education committee in Central Kenya says public schools would not be facing a staffing crisis in the absence of academies.

Although he admits that most academies pay salaries below government scales, stringent supervision, optimal staffing, and adequate facilities have attracted many teachers.

“Bickering in public schools management and the slow death of school inspection have also helped us,” added the official.

Academies have particularly gained a foothold in rural areas, now hard hit by a shortage of teachers in public schools.

Nyeri had 178 public secondary schools at the start of the year. There are 45 private secondary schools.

School enrolment

As in most of the province, the district has not experienced a phenomenal increase in public primary school enrolment in recent years.

Although education officials are hesitant to link this to the rise of private academies, all indications are that they are the main reason for this.

While this helps ease congestion in public schools, it comes with the problem of teacher migration. Public schools expansion in the province has also been slowed by the rise of academies.

In Mathira constituency, for example, CDF manager Margaret Rugiri says the bulk of funding to schools has been to renovate rather than expand facilities.

But the Central provincial director of education says the teachers shortage is not a big problem and accuses the heads of “cleverly coercing” parents to privately hire teachers they do not require.

Mr Patrick Karinga, the chairman of the Nyeri branch of Knut, says the district’s 381 primary schools have each hired an average of three teachers to bridge a shortage of 1,500 in the area alone.