Fact check: Will the government look into teachers teaching Garissa, Mandera and Wajir.
The Jubilee government came up with the policy in an effort to promote national cohesion and integration, deter conflict of interest in the administration of schools, improve learning outcomes and address teacher shortage.
The Ministry of Education says 46,962 primary and secondary school teachers had requested to be transferred back to their home counties by June. However, only 20,055 succeeded.
The rest cannot as there are no suitable replacements.
The TSC received 35,959 primary school teacher applications for delocalisation, with 17, 942 being moved.The government says it will come up with measures to address the challenge permanently, including affirmative action and recruiting locals.
“While teacher shortage is a countrywide problem, we have to recognise that it affects certain regions uniquely,” CS Mr.Ezekiel Machogu said during the 63rd Kenya National Union of Teachers Annual Delegates Conference.
“Shortage in North Eastern, parts of the North Rift and the Coast is attributed to the general hardship and perceived insecurity.”
He added that the problem is aggravated by the low numbers of teacher trainees and trained tutors in these regions.According to the TSC staffing data, for instance, some 3,227 non-local teachers are working in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties.
A total of 1,387 locals are teaching in primary, junior secondary and secondary schools in Mandera. The remaining 889 are non-locals.Wajir has 1,002 teachers from the community while 1,221 are non-locals. Local tutors in Garissa are 808 against 1,136 from other regions.
Many non-local teachers in North Eastern region have been seeking transfer since the Garissa University attack in April 2015 that left 148 people dead and scores injured.
Following the attack, some 909 teachers pitched camp at the TSC headquarters demanding to be moved from North Eastern.
The commission instructed the teachers to report back to their stations but a number opted to resign.
After the mass transfer of non-local teachers from the region, the TSC restricted applications for employment to exclusively hire locals.
In 2021, the TSC Board noted a biting teacher shortage in North Eastern following extensive stakeholder engagements.
The commission then reopened applications for employment of non-local teachers.
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- It also engaged leaders from the region to employ affirmative action by training locals to enrol for teaching courses. Teacher training colleges were then opened in Wajir, Garissa and Mandera.
To support the initiative, the commission took the decision to hire the local teachers upon graduation.President William Ruto recently admitted that education in the Coast faces many challenges, citing teacher shortage as the main one.He added that the government allocated 5,000 slots to the region in the recent teacher recruitment.
“Some 350 positions have not been filled. Leaders should encourage young people to enrol for education courses in colleges and universities,” he said during a meeting with leaders from the region last month.
Coast region has three teacher training colleges, including Bura, and Shanzu which were built by the government.Kwale Teachers Training College, which was built by the devolved government, was officially opened by President Ruto on November 5, 2023.
Some 42 trainees have since graduated from the college. The institution has 404 students pursuing Diploma in Primary Teacher Education and Early Childhood Development Education.
Kilifi Governor, Gideon Mung’aro and his Taita Taveta colleague Andrew Mwadime have been calling on the Ministry of Education to address teacher shortage in the Coast.
The two governors say lack of teachers has dealt a blow to education standards in region’s six counties.Mr Mung’aro blames the poor national examination results on a shortage of teachers in most Coast schools.
“That is why we are advocating for the employment of more teachers to bridge the gap,” Mr Mung’aro said at an education summit in Malindi recently.
Mr Mwadime said the government has taken long to address the challenge.
“Some schools have many learners but lack teachers,” he said during a meeting with Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers officials.
According to Mr Machogu, the government has demonstrated a clear intent to deal with the problem once and for all.
“This administration has hired 56,750 teachers in just one year,” he said.
The CS said the government would ensure the teacher shortage is addressed sustainably and schools are resourced.He added that the government is seeking long-term solutions to the education challenges in hardship regions.
“The ministry, the TSC and other stakeholders are developing workable solutions, in line with the affirmative action imperatives in the Constitution,” the minister said.
Fact check: Will the government look into teachers teaching Garissa, Mandera and Wajir.
