The recent case where thousands of teaching graduates scrambled for 46,000 vacancies recently advertised by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) exposed the high unemployment rates in the country.
The Teachers Service Commission on Wednesday, October 23 confirmed receiving 314,117 applications against the advertised 46,000 positions for Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers. The application period closed on October 8.
Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Education to respond to questions on the employment of JSC teachers, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia admitted that the high number of applications points to a crisis within the sector. However, even as the TSC portal remained flooded with applications, the CEO confirmed that there is an acute shortage of science teachers which the commission is worried about.
Macharia confirmed that the commission is currently investigating how to address the problem and solve the crisis.
During the Parliamentary session, MPs expressed their worry about the crisis and questioned TSC officials on what their eventual strategy is since it is already evident that there is a huge demand for teaching jobs but the commission is unable to get science teachers.
While making their responses on the floor of the house, the TSC officials led by Macharia claimed that most teachers prefer to study arts as opposed to sciences which has led to the crisis.
"Yes I agree, there is a crisis, yes, and I have never run away from that. And I think that as a Nation, that is something we need to debate on," Dr Nancy Macharia said while appearing before the committee.
According to the TSC CEO, the commission is also focusing on the redistribution of teachers to ensure balance and is looking into recruiting 20,000 more teachers in the next cohort by January 2025.
Macharia revealed the Commission has written to the Ministry of Education on several occasions in a bid to employ a multi-sectoral approach towards solving the science teachers shortage but the matter has not been adequately addressed.
Macharia encouraged a large number of teaching students to consider pursuing sciences, which will bring equilibrium to the industry which is currently flooded with arts teachers.
"Majority of teachers that are coming out of our universities are arts, we don't get science teachers when you advertise. But we must agree that we have a shortage of science teachers, we have written to the education ministry several times. You would advertise for science and physics teachers and you won't find one", Macharia told the committee.
The CEO has also revealed that the country has more than 400,000 unemployed teachers. The CEO, during the session intimated that the budget cuts instituted by the government has contributed to making the situation worse.
"Every time we come to you we always ask for Ksh2 billion but you always give us Ksh1 billion, what are we supposed to do?," Macharia posed during the session with the MPs.
