Teachers Crisis As Irreplaceable Amount Of Teachers Exit Sevice every year
Teacher shortage in public schools was 103,931 as of January of this year according to Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia.
According to Nation, more teachers leave the service every year than the government can replace them, like a leaking can that never fills.
As a result, the Kenya’s dream of improving teacher-to-student ratios remains a pipe dream, as staffing gaps in public schools persist.
While Unesco recommends a 40:1 ratio, some urban public schools have one teacher teaching more than 100 children.
According to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), between 8,000 and 10,000 teachers leave the service each year, but the commission has only allocated funds to employ 5,000 over the last five years.
This is far below the recommended target of 12,626 teachers per year in the TSC 2019-2023 Strategic Plan.
The ongoing scarcity is a major impediment to the implementation of the competency-based curriculum (CBC), which necessitates small class sizes.
The first CBC cohort will graduate from primary school in a year, but secondary schools have the greatest teacher shortages.
Because increased secondary school enrollment has not been matched by adequate teacher recruitment, teacher shortages have had a negative impact on the 100% transition policy.
According to TSC, this has resulted in a teacher shortage of approximately 27,000 in secondary schools.
A large number of teachers exit through retirement, resign or die, while others are fired for various disciplinary reasons.
According to Minet Kenya, which manages the teachers’ medical scheme, three teachers die every day on average.
This equates to approximately 1,095 deaths per year. The year 2020/2021 had the most deaths (1,430), while 2015/2016 had the lowest number (880).
Over the last five years, 28,500 teachers have been hired, compared to a target of 50,500. Only 8,500 teachers were employed in the 2018/2019 fiscal year.
TSC has been allocated Sh296.6 billion in the 2022/2023 Budget Policy Statement, which is Sh14.9 billion more than its current allocation.
Ms Macharia stated before the National Assembly’s Education Committee that the commission requires Sh17 billion to optimally staff all public schools.
The commission has employed 339,000 teachers, with over 300,000 more registered but unemployed.
To address the acute shortage, TSC launched an internship program in 2019 in which jobless teachers are hired on a contract basis and paid a stipend.
In the first batch, 10,300 interns were hired, 12,000 in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, and 6,000 this year.
The program has also become a stepping stone to future employment, as TSC awards 30% marks to teachers who have served as interns, giving them a significant advantage.
The government faces major staffing challenges as it prepares for the much-anticipated transition from the 8-4-4 system to the new Competency-Based Education system (CBC).
The pioneer Grade 6 students, who will take national exams under the 2-6-3-3-3 system next year, are expected to transfer to Junior Secondary School in 2023, at the same time as next year’s Class Eight students.
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It is also the year in which current Class Six students under the 8-4-4 system will enter Form One after completing KCPE exams, posing a massive infrastructure challenge of hosting 2.6 million children in 2023.
