TSC To End Recruitment Of Teachers on Permanent Basis

After a move by the Senate, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) may now only hire teachers on job terms.

Freeze of Permanent Recruitment

Senators have asked for a freeze on permanent and pensionable jobs for teachers and suggested that they be hired on a contract basis instead to make up for a gap that the TSC says is 111,810.

The Senate National Cohesion Committee told the head of the TSC, Nancy Macharia, to find out what law problems need to be fixed so that teachers can be hired on a contract basis. This, they said, would allow the commission to hire more teachers with its limited budget.

Salary scales

Permanent first-grade teachers start with a pay of Sh35,000, while those who work on a contract get a “stipend” of Sh15,000.

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Permanent teachers in secondary schools start with a pay of Sh55,000, while temporary teachers are paid Sh20,000.

Mrs. Macharia said that the shortage still exists even though the commission hired 36,000 teachers earlier this year. She said that 47,329 teachers are needed in elementary schools and 64,541 teachers are needed in secondary schools.

“To do this, the commission needs Shl4.8 billion from the budget every year to pay for hiring teachers,” she said.

The head of the TSC also said that by law, the commission can’t keep teachers on contract for too long, and that after two years, they would be made permanent and eligible for a salary.

TSC To End Recruitment Of Teachers on Permanent Basis

“Because we don’t have enough money, we’ve never had enough teachers. Give us the money, and we’ll find people.” Mrs. Macharia said.

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Mrs. Macharia told the committee that records for the 36,000 new teachers are being worked on and that not all of them have been added to the salary yet. Only the files of 20,900 teachers are complete.

The Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago said that the Employment Act should be changed to get rid of any legal barriers to letting teachers be hired on a contract, with clear rules about pay and length of service.

“We can’t let unions hold us hostage. “There are kids who need to learn and Kenyans who need to work,” he said.

Tharaka Nithi Senator Mahvenda Gataya said that a plan to hire people on a contract should be brought to the Cabinet for approval so that people who work for a certain amount of time can be hired permanently every year.

Delocalization

The senators also wanted to bring back the delocalization policy. They said that if teachers were allowed to go back to their home counties of choice, it would leave some areas without enough teachers.

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“The commission sends teachers back to their home counties if there are openings and the teachers want to move. As of April, the commission had moved 15,824 teachers to the areas they wanted, Mrs. Macharia told the committee.

Mr. Mandago said that the National Assembly was wrong to make TSC cancel the delocalization policy. He said that the move goes against Article 10(2)(b) of the Constitution, which says that “human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination, and protection of the marginalized” are national ideals and principles of government.

“As the upper house, we need to look at that decision again and vote against it,” he said.

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The Kenya Kwanza platform says, “To help teachers deal with the problems caused by delocalization, we will replace this policy with a nationalization program that will give teachers who want to work in other parts of the country an incentive to do so.”

TSC To End Recruitment Of Teachers on Permanent Basis

Also, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u didn’t show up yesterday when she was asked to talk to the Senate Standing Committee on Education about how teachers’ pensions are paid.

This was the fourth time he didn’t show up to the committee meeting.

Now, the committee will officially ask Prof. Ndung’u to answer a petition about a long-running case about how teachers who left between 1998 and 2003 should be paid.

In a letter to the Senate clerk dated May 18, Prof. Ndung’u said, “Due to unforeseen circumstances and official commitments that require my immediate attention, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to attend the session as requested.”

On May 4, the CS missed another meeting. Back then. He said he was supposed to meet with the National Assembly again on the same day.

He then sent in a letter saying that the government had paid the teachers more than Sh16 billion. Since then, some of the former teachers have said that they haven’t been paid.

Junior Secondary School, JSS

Concerns were also made by the committee about learning in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) that don’t have enough teachers and facilities.

“I feel sorry for our JSS students. Something terrible is going on. How are they going to learn science without labs?” asked Taita-Taveta Senator Johnes Mvaruma.

TSC To End Recruitment Of Teachers on Permanent Basis