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Education news highlights
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📝TSC sets tough guidelines for new job seekers
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has outlined tough guidelines for recruitment of new employees for post-primary institutions in the 2022/2023 Financial Year.
In a 23-page document, TSC Secretary Nancy Macharia said the selection panel will be required to demonstrate the highest degree of transparency and accountability when hiring the teachers.
Any application form or offer of employment given based on false information provided by the applicant will be cancelled immediately without any further reference to them. “Applicants whose names differ in the academic and professional certificates or identification cards must present an affidavit, sworn under the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act, Cap 15 of the Laws of Kenya, to explain the variance in names,” the new rules.
The directives are contained in a circular to TSC regional, county and sub-county directors of education as well as the Boards of Management (BoMs) secretaries dated December 9.
The circular comes against the backdrop of heightened lobbying by Members of Parliament to have their constituents hired in this recruitment drive, amid fears of legislators hijacking the recruitment drive.
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📝Keep off teachers hiring, unions warn lawmakers
Unionists in the education sector yesterday warned lawmakers against attempts to interfere with the planned countrywide recruitment of teachers.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) accused the MPs of encroaching on the mandate of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) by seeking to influence the employment of teachers.
The anticipated nationwide recruitment of 30,000 additional teachers has been marred by fears of political interference and manipulation after it emerged that MPs have been positioning themselves to reward their cronies with the appointment.
There have been concerns that some MPs have convened meetings with their respective constituents together with their local sub-county directors of education to discuss possible recruitment amid fears that the lawmakers could be out to hijack the process to secure employment for their cronies and relatives. However, the unionists argued that such a move was tantamount to interference with the teachers employer’s work as stipulated in the law.
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📝MPs want to direct recruitment of tutors, tell TSC to consider locals
Members of Parliament are angling for the Teachers Service Commission employment vacancies for their cronies, it has emerged.
MPs have called for meetings in their constituencies with all unemployed teachers, days after the TSC announced the recruitment exercise.
The legislators have urged the unemployed teachers to carry their academic papers saying the meetings will be attended by TSC officials and political leaders.
Kabete MP James Githua Kamau invited teachers in his constituency for a meeting on Tuesday, December 13, two days after the TSC announcement.
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📝Education CS Ezekiel Machogu asks teachers to be realistic in their 60 percent pay increment demand; teachers stand their ground…
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📝New funding plan to see return of ‘parallel’ students in public varsities
President William Ruto has hinted at changing the funding model for public universities, which will see the cash-strapped institutions admit students only based on the government’s ability to support them rather than their performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations.
If implemented, the move will see fewer students get government sponsorship as opposed to the current scenario where all students who score the minimum university entry grade of C+ are eligible for government support.
The move is likely to cause a resurgence of the self-sponsored programmes (Module II), which attracted students who missed out on government sponsorship, and minted billions of shillings for universities.
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📝TSC promotions
Tsc to advertise and start the process of promoting the teachers to different grades immediately after National exams.
Tsc to promote teachers in 15,522 positions at a cost of Sh 1.4 billion
The move to promote tutors is due to natural attrition, deaths,some teachers joining politics and other reasons.
The process had stalled due to compressed school calendar.
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📝Schools to teach coding by next year, says Ruto
President William Ruto on Sunday said coding will be part of the school curriculum going forward.
The president said by teaching learners problem-solving skills early, through coding, they are better prepared for the world.
He said the learners will also be empowered and given tools to express themselves.
“We need to know how to grow our technology from primary school. You have heard about coding that is now going to be part of our curriculum to ensure technology becomes part of our journey from primary school all the way to university,” Ruto said.
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📝Junior secondary classrooms will not go to waste, school heads say
The government’s directive to domicile junior secondary schools in primary schools has come with a mixed bag of fortunes for the institutions.
According to the directive, learners moving to grades 7,8 and 9 will remain in primary schools as opposed to an earlier move to have them join secondary schools, pushing investors in the education sector back to the drawing board.
School heads who had invested millions to set up junior secondary schools hoping to reap from the transition are now scratching their heads on what to do with the massive investments.
Some have, however, termed the decision a blessing in disguise noting that the facilities will be necessary for the near future.
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📝Rural schools reap big from teachers recruitment
Schools from upcountry will reap big from the upcoming teachers’ recruitment exercise slated for January.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced 35,550 vacancies that are up for grabs in both primary and secondary schools.
Thousands of unemployed tutors are set to benefit as TSC moves to fill shortage gaps at a time the government is implementing the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), with the first batch of Grade Seven learners transitioning to junior secondary domiciled in public primary schools.
The Standard has established that Kitui county will get the highest number of new teachers with 1,475 tutors expected to be hired. Out of this, 434 will be permanently employed while the rest will be interns.
Kakamega County will get a total of 1,449 new teachers followed by Nakuru (1,223), Bungoma (1,208), Meru (1,120) while Makueni is set to have 1,056 tutors expected to address the acute shortage.
Other counties that experience high shortages include Machakos which will have 1,050 additional teachers in January, Kisii (995), Homa Bay (975) and Narok (912).
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~Newsbyte
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