Education Ministry under scrutiny as politicians distribute employment letters to new QUASOs

Education Ministry under scrutiny as politicians distribute employment letters to new QUASOs

Concerns have been raised regarding the recruitment process of Quality Assurance and Standards Officers (QUASOs) by the Public Service Commission (PSC), whom the Ministry of Education (MoE) subsequently assigned to field offices.

Educators are worried that the MoE irregularly appointed over 110 QUASOs from the middle of last year to the beginning of this year without posting job advertisements or conducting candidate interviews.

It is notable that those who received the jobs were primarily selected from among teachers, with top politicians and influential government officials handing out the appointment letters.

A senior government official at the MoE, who preferred not to be named for fear of retaliation, confirmed that the appointments and postings of the QUASOs took place to resolve the shortage of officers at the field level.

“It is accurate that the Ministry employed the officers to tackle the lack of QUASOs in the field. We have deficiencies in officer coverage at our sub-counties, and these roles need to be filled. However, we found the number of hires to be exceedingly high,” the officer stated.

The senior official, who is knowledgeable about activities at MoE headquarters, acknowledged that the Government indeed did not publicize the positions and did not conduct interviews prior to the deployment of the mentioned staff.

“The Education CS, as mandated by law, announces the vacancies and informs the Public Service Commission (PSC) to publicly declare the positions, shortlist applicants, interview them, and appoint the officers by issuing them letters. The recruitment agency of the Government chose a different approach,” the MoE insider remarked.

Those familiar with these details have urged the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Authority (EACC) to promptly investigate how the teachers were selected and appointed as QUASOs without adhering to the formal protocol.

Their concerns are based on allegations that from July 2024 to February this year, the MoE, through politicians and certain senior government officials, covertly handed out appointment letters to teachers who were either relatives or political allies to join MoE as QUASOs.

In an effort to validate these allegations, Education News undertook a fact-finding mission across various counties to establish whether individuals had been recently appointed as QUASOs.

The investigation uncovered that some teachers joined the QUASO department with the assistance of high-ranking politicians and influential entities within the Government.

The purported irregularities appear to have caused considerable distress among the current officers in the QUASO section under the MoE when they recognized that certain new arrivals had allegedly been appointed to superior positions than their own.

“It demoralizes us to witness teachers being lobbied by politicians to supervise us in the field. Adding to our discontent is the fact that there were no recent job advertisements or interviews conducted for these appointments,” expressed a senior QUASO from the Eastern region.

Additionally, it is argued that unnamed Members of Parliament on the Education Committee were exploiting the existing (QUASOs vacancies at the MoE to benefit their relatives and associates.
“This tendency of politicians to circumvent the law to benefit their supporters is absolute impunity and must be halted. Seasoned officers become disheartened by such behavior. How can you impose inexperienced teachers and other new hires on seasoned officers, and how can you even have the audacity to appoint them to higher job categories? remarked the enraged QUASO.

Recently, the reputation of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) came under intense examination after certain Members of Parliament were captured distributing employment forms in their constituencies. This is occurring while the Commission subjected other Kenyans to a competitive process for teacher recruitment. The public has raised concerns about how those connected were receiving free employment forms while others endured strenuous assessments.

It is important to point out that the Ministry of Education has not posted any officer vacancies in the last four years yet has proceeded with making replacements. Previously, the government declared a hiring freeze within the civil service. “