The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was on Tuesday put on the spot over teacher recruitment, promotions, and deployment across the country.
Appearing before the National Assembly Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia defended the Commission’s decisions, stating that the deployment of teachers is based on equity and need.
Macharia told lawmakers that it was Parliament itself that passed a motion compelling TSC to return newly recruited teachers to their home sub-counties.
“You are the lawmakers. We distribute teachers where there are deficits. But there was public outcry, and Parliament passed a motion for teachers to be returned to their localities. We complied,” she stated.
MPs argued for local recruitment but national deployment to enhance equal opportunity and national integration.
“Let recruitment be local, but deployment national. That way, we can democratise opportunities across the board.”
The issue of unemployed trained teachers also took centre stage, with the Karemba Muchangi led committee questioning why thousands of graduates remain jobless despite a high teacher shortage in several counties.
“After curriculum changes removed Standards 6, 7, and 8, we ended up with surplus teachers in some primary schools. We’ve advised against training more primary teachers, yet colleges continue.” explained Macharia
Lawmakers also raised concerns of promotion challenges, with TSC revealing that Ksh5 billion is needed annually to promote teachers and effectively avoid stagnation.
“With only one billion shillings, we can promote just 6,000 teachers. We need five billion annually to fully address stagnation,” said Macharia
MPs pressed further on the issue of equity in promotions and the unclear criteria used with reports of some constituencies receiving as few as five promotions.
“We had only five teachers promoted out of 25,000. If divided equally across the 290 constituencies, we should have gotten at least 80,” argued Tiaty MP William Kamket
Teachers’ health insurance under the MINET scheme also drew concern. TSC admitted that delays in government disbursements and a failed transition to the Social Health Authority have contributed to ongoing issues.
“The contract implementation committee is monitoring MINET closely. But due to exchequer delays, even our payments have lagged behind. Transitioning to SHA wasn’t possible because they couldn’t absorb our numbers,” said Macharia
Despite the grilling, the Commission said it continues to work within its constraints and remains committed to improving teacher welfare across the country.
The TSC says the promotion bottleneck, staffing imbalance, and health insurance hurdles all stem from inadequate funding and called on Parliament to review policies to allow for more sustainable planning.
