The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has launched a pilot phase of biometric enrolment and validation of teachers.
The exercise is targeting teachers in 143 institutions spread across 7 counties namely Uasin Gishu, Homa Bay, Bungoma, Nyeri, Kilifi, Kitui, and Garissa.
TSC Director Ibrahim Mumin, who oversaw the launch of the exercise at the Nyeri Boys High School on Monday morning, said there is a need to maintain an up to date data of teachers.
Mumin said information captured in this process will create a database that will help inform the government in decision-making. According to the April 2021 figures, there were 224,075 primary school teachers in 22,821 public schools; 117,120 secondary school teachers in 9,043 public secondary schools and teacher training colleges; serving a learner population of 8, 071,662 in primary schools and 2,761,769 in public secondary schools and teacher training colleges.
The process involves capturing the fingerprints of teachers, validating personal employment data, and taking passport size photos.
Mumin added that the data will help in verifying teachers’ distribution and utilization, validate enrolment in public schools and also validate teachers’ biodata and employment records while still establishing areas of specialization.
The TSC director stated that the exercise is a multi-agency exercise that involves different government agencies and the pilot will guide the national roll-out.
The data to be verified includes the identification details of the teachers, letter of appointment, PWD certifications if any, and academic certificates that are run against preloaded data from the IPPD.
The commission earlier said stakeholders had been involved at the county and national levels and their views were considered in the program.
The exercise assumes that the captured data will expose how teachers are spread countrywide, a development that will inform the rationalization of the staff. “We shall ensure utilization of teachers and also balance areas that we shall feel are not well covered,” TSC Director of Administrative Services Ibrahim Mumin said.
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