The Teachers Service Commission intends to recruit 18,000 more Junior Secondary teachers to bring to 48,000 the total number the commission has employed so far this year.
Speaking at St Monica Chakol Girls High School in Busia during a meeting with education stakeholders and Members of the Parliament from Busia County TSC Commissioner Dr Nicodemus Anyang said they are aware of the shortage of JSS teachers countrywide but they are working on measures to employ more.
“The criteria used to arrive at the number of teachers in every sub-county is based on the number of classes. For example, Bunyala will receive 10 teachers out of 261 slots allocated for Busia County,” he noted
Dr Anyang revealed that the commission will also employ 2,000 primary teachers to fill the gap adding that due to budget constraints, they will not employ senior secondary school teachers.
He noted that during the recruitment of the teachers, the commission will prioritize the locals, based on their identity cards, who meet certain conditions adding that understaffing is very critical with a shortage of 116,000 across the country.
“The commission when recruiting JSS teachers will settle first on the locals in every Sub County across the country and in the event that there are a few applicants who are locals, they will use the second criteria where applicants from other sub-counties will be considered before we go outside the county if the space is still available.
Members of Parliament present faulted the commission for failing to recruit enough teachers in schools in Busia County contributing to poor performance.
According to Butula Member of Parliament Mr Joseph Oyula, the commission is aware that the county requires more teachers but during recruitment of teachers, they allocate few slots to Busia compared to other counties that are overstaffed.
“My first problem with Busia is staffing. I only have 318 teachers in secondary schools and I have vacancies of 306 in the Butula sub-county. How do you expect the students to perform without teachers? Whenever there is any recruitment why are we only given a few slots? Next time when there is recruitment please consider Busia county.” He noted
He added, “Why should you give a higher allocation to counties like Kiambu which is already overstaffed, and give a low allocation to counties like Busia and Bungoma? I will ask you when you go back to consider that for Busia,” Said Oyula
Nambale Member of Parliament Mr Geoffrey Mulanya noted that as much as TSC is trying to employ more teachers, Busia County is still below the required standards.
According to him, sub-counties bordering other counties such as Bungoma, Kakamega, and Siaya were badly affected where after delocalization those teachers who had been initially delocalized, asked for transfers going back to their respective counties without replacements.
“When we had the issue of transfers of the delocalized teachers, there were massive transfers of teachers back to their respective counties, especially schools bordering other counties, and no replacement was made,” he said
Teso South Member of Parliament Ms Mary Emase echoed their statements adding that it is high time for the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) to consider Busia County in their next recruitment adding that poor performance in National examinations in Busia County is a result of lack of enough teachers.
“Understaffing is a major problem in our schools across the county, especially the Junior secondary school teachers. You will find one JSS teacher in a school and you expect that person to deliver it is difficult. TSC needs to come in and address the problem once and for all,” she said
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