The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has asked retiring school heads who would wish to extend their term in office to sign a one and a half year contract.
Details reveal that some school heads who were retiring by 30th June 2021 had their term extended on a contract of up to two years or at least one and a half.
In January 2021, TSC appointed 2,111 Deputy headteachers to the Headteachers position who now settle at Grade C5 (TSC scale 10). For one to be appointed to be a Headteacher (Grade C5/TSC scale 10), TSC outline the following requirements:
- Must be serving under career progression guidelines;
- Have served in the grade of Deputy Head Teacher II (Grade C4/T- Scale 9) for at least three (3) years;
- Should have served as Deputy Head Teacher for at last three (3) years;
- Must have a satisfactory rating in the performance appraisal;
- Should meet the requirement of Chapter six (6) of the constitution;
NB: Bachelors Degree in a relevant area will be an added advantage
Applicants shall be required to upload the following documents during applications:
- Letter of appointment to the current grade.
- Letter of appointment/deployment to the current responsibility.
- Certificate of Good Conduct from Director of Criminal Investigations.
- Clearance Certificate by Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
- Clearance Application from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
- Clearance Certificate from a Credit Reference Bureau.
- Tax Compliance Certificate from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)
About 25,000 teachers are set to retire in two years time (by 2022) and TSC is currently facing a crisis in schools after details emerged that most of these are school heads.
In November last year, the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (Kuppet) published a report showing that half of these teachers are above 59 years of age and hence are due for retirement in June 2021.
“Our finding is that as of November 2020, the teaching service has 25,000 teachers aged 58 and above…meaning Kenya is facing a deep teacher shortage that calls for radical measures to address,” said the Kuppet secretary-general Akello Misori.
“We call for urgent plans for the hiring of at least 50,000 teachers over the next one year (2021) and at least 15,000 per year between 2021 and 2026,” said Mr Misori. The commission’s target has not been met due to inadequate budgetary provision.
The Treasury allocated Sh3.2 billion to TSC for the recruitment of teachers in the year starting July 2021. The commission had requested for Sh20.2 billion, therefore, its plans of increasing teacher numbers were affected.
In June this year, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani proposed Kshs. 2.5 billion allocations to further recruitment of additional teachers in the Financial year 2021/2022
Last month, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) announced its plan to recruit and promote over 10,000 teachers. TSC said it is recruiting 5,000 secondary school teachers and an additional 1,000 for primary schools. Hired teachers will serve on permanent and pensionable terms of service.
TSC Commission Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nancy Macharia announced that the additional teachers will help the government achieve its policy on 100 per cent transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools.
An additional 2,987 teachers are also being hired to replace those who exited secondary school teaching service either through natural attrition or retirement. For primary schools, only 927 teachers will be hired to replace those who exited teaching service.
The National Treasury allocated Ksh2.5 billion towards the recruitment of new teachers. TSC says it needs about 100,000 teachers to fill the staffing gaps and take care of increased enrolments.
In a July report tabled in Parliament before the reopening of schools, TSC boss Nancy Macharia stated that the commission urgently needed Sh17 billion to hire 26,000 teachers to manage increased enrolment under the 100 per cent transition.
TSC also said it required an extra Sh8.1 billion yearly to hire 12,500 teachers to fill the normal shortage. “Under normal staffing, the commission needed 50,504 teachers to support the existing staff establishment,” Macharia told MPs.
TSC however says that only 6,000 new teachers will be recruited towards filling staffing gaps as a total of 3, 914 are hired to replace those who have exited.
“Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications online through the Commission’s website, www.tsc.go.ke under ‘Careers’ or teachersonline.tsc.go.ke not later than July 12, 2021,” said Macharia.
Early this year, the commission hired 12,000 interns under the Covid-19 economic stimulus package.
Interns were recruited at a cost of Sh2.4 billion, were part of the broad plan to take the pressure off teachers, who were overstretched due to the new realities occasioned by Covid-19.
Promotion of Teachers
Macharia said additional 1,000 qualified primary school teachers will be promoted to secondary schools. Those wishing to be promoted and deployed to teach in secondary schools she said must possess P1 certificates.
“They must also have attained at least C+ (Plus) mean grade at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent and C+ (Plus) in the two teaching subjects or its equivalent,” said Macharia.
“Successful candidates under this category shall be appointed at T-Scale 7, Grade C2 under the Career Progression Guidelines for Teachers and shall be deployed to secondary schools where vacancies exist.”
This means teachers opposed to the CPGs are not qualified or may at least not be considered for the slots.
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK
For more Teachers Updates
Join the @TeachersUpdates Telegram channel
