Hiring of Kenyan teachers kicks off

Written By:KBC reporters , Posted: Tue, Aug 17, 2010


There is currently a shortage of 66,000 teachers in the country and as a stop gap measure the Teachers Service Commission Tuesday launched a recruitment drive which will see over 18,000 teachers employed on a contractual basis.

Treasury has released Sh 2.31B for the exercise. Some 18,000 teachers will be hired through the district education boards and will serve on contract terms for a period of three years.

Out of those, 13,860 will be posted to primary schools while 4,200 will join various secondary schools and teacher training colleges countrywide.

In each of the 210 constituencies, 66 teachers will be recruited for primary and 20 teachers for the secondary schools.

The recruitment process which kicks off immediately will act as a short term cushion for the high number of schools whose students ratio to teachers is incomparable.

The recruitment drive will see each of the 210 constituencies allocated 66 teachers but preference will be given those who have not worked with TSC before.

The PS in the Ministry of Education James Ole Kiyapi says the quality of Education can only improve with the number of teachers matching that of students and this is the reason why the Government allocated 96 billion Kenya shillings to the Ministry of Education.

The teachers will be hired on contract basis for a minimum of 3 years and they should be below 50 years.

A primary school teacher will be paid Sh10,000 while those in secondary schools Sh14,000 for the period they will be serving on contract.

The plan to hire teachers on contract terms was contested at the High Court by the Kenya National Union Of Teachers last year, arguing that teachers could only be hired on permanent terms only as provided for by the TSC Act.

The High Court granted the orders to halt the process but the union late last month settled the matter out-of-court with the government paving the way for the recruitment exercise.