A teacher instructs her pupils at Hurura Primary School in Garsen. An additional 10,000 new teachers will be recruited for public schools in the next financial year to address a biting shortage under a new government plan. Photo/LABAN WALLOGA

An additional 10,000 new teachers will be recruited for public schools in the next financial year to address a biting shortage under a new government plan.
According to the report detailing resource requirements in the education sector, the Teachers Service Commission and the Kenya National Union of Teachers agreed that the agency recruits more staff in the next financial year.
The deal, according to the Education Sector Report of 2012, was part of the back-to-work agreement that allowed teachers to resume classes following a strike last year.
The report recommends that 10,000 teachers be recruited every year over the next five years to address the deficit, worsened by the recently extended long term dates and an increasing enrolment arising from the free learning programmes.

“To alleviate the shortages currently being experienced, an additional 10,000 teachers (should) be recruited every year for the next five years,” says the report.
But Knut chairman Wilson Sossion rejected the government plan, saying the union had demanded that 20,000 teachers be employed annually.
He said that while union had agreed that more teachers be recruited, consensus was never reached on the number.
Currently, there are 19,360 primary schools and 6,178 post-primary institutions that require a total of 333,480 teachers.
However, the institutions only have 263,060 teachers, creating a shortage of 70,420 teachers.
Of these, 37,431 are required in primary schools while 33,079 are needed in post-primary institutions, according to the report.
Schools in rural areas, arid and semi-arid regions suffer a greater shortage than those in urban areas.
Mr Sossion faulted the report’s contents, saying that other than the conversion of contract teachers to permanent terms and recruitment of 5,000 fresh staff in January, there had not been any mention of the number to be recruited next year, he said.
“We will not change our demand that 20,000 teachers be recruited,” he said.
Breach of contract
“It is a breach of our contract for the government to give an impression that we had agreed on a smaller number of teachers”.

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