Teachers are reportedly quitting the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for more lucrative positions in first-world countries.
One of the teachers, in an interview with NTV on Sunday, indicated that the salaries offered abroad were in six figures and more lucrative than their earnings locally.
"As a teacher in Kenya, the only thing you can afford is maybe to build a small 2-bedroom house and pay school fees for two children," Felix Wanyaga noted.
Another teacher lamented that the changing terms of promotion and poor infrastructure were driving tutors out of the teaching industry.
"Before, we were getting promotion on merit but then it stopped. We were told that if you need to get a promotion, you have to go back to class, so I had to go back to class," another tutor, Silvia Wanjiru, stated.
Reports indicated that the teachers prefer jobs in the United States and the United Kingdom which are currently experiencing a shortage north of 400,000.
The departures came as the government's plan to hire 46,000 Junior Secondary School interns on a permanent and pensionable basis went on ice.
President William Ruto, on Wednesday, indicated that his administration will initiate budget cuts after shelving the Finance Bill, 2024 in its entirety. The process of hiring teachers is among the affected sectors.
In February this year, the government announced that it was working on a plan to export teachers to foreign countries even as the unemployment rate across the country continues to rise.
At the time, the State Department for Diaspora Affairs noted that the Kenyan workforce was in demand abroad, and Kenyan teachers were highly sought after.
Around the same time, however, TSC introduced new hurdles for teachers looking for promotion in primary and secondary schools.
The government, through the Teachers Service Commission (Amendment) Bill of 2024 announced that it will require all its tutors to sit for a practising certificate, under the continuous professional development programmes.
The bill sought to amend the Teachers Service Commission Act, of 2012.
