The Teachers Service Commission has invited shortlisted candidates for interviews for the 10, 300 internship posts aimed at plugging the gap in Kenya’s Education Sector.

According to the TSC memo from Catherine Lenairoshi, TSC Corporate Communications officer, the list of shortlisted candidates has already been dispatched to all the 47 counties nationwide.

All interviews are scheduled to take place at the TSC County offices.

The following list will give an overview of TSC’s employment trend as per the year 2019.

BELOW IS A GLIMPSE OF THE LIST OF SHORTLISTED CANDIDATES FOR TRANS NZOIA COUNTY, KWANZA SUB COUNTY:

TSC 2019 TEACHER- INTERN APPLICANTS TO GO THROUGH INTERVIEWS AT THE COUNTY LEVEL.

Finally, there is a sigh of relief to all the qualified teachers who applied for the intern positions because TSC has offered direction on the next course of action! All the successful applicants (short-listed) are advised to attend to interviews at the county TSC offices. It is confirmed that a list of shortlisted applicants has been sent to each county. This is from a memo dated 7th of November 2019 from madam Catherine Lenairoshi of TSC Corporate Communications office. The communique further notified all the shortlisted candidates to carry the following as they attend the interviews on a date that would be communicated in due course:

• A valid certificate of good conduct
• A valid personal accident cover
• An original national ID card.
• Two passport size photographs
• KCSE certificate
• KCPE certificate
• Disability card where applicable
• Diploma/degree certificate together with transcripts.
• The school leaving certificate
• KRA pin
• A bank plate

On the 8thof October 2019, the Teachers Service Commission(TSS) advertised for a whooping 10,300 teacher intern positions. These numbers were to take care of both the primary and secondary schools teacher biting shortage. The bigger number(6000) was for secondary schools perhaps in a bid to plug the severe staff shortage following the 100% transition clarion call. The 4,300 posts were reserved for the primary schools. All the applications were to be done online a great departure from the norm where teachers applied for the advertised positions at the school and sub-county education offices.

Salaries and deductions

According to the sources from TSC, it is confirmed that primary school teacher interns will pocket 10,000 while their secondary school counterparts will smile all the way to the bank to cash 15,000. It is important to note that these incomes are subject to statutory deductions. This is stuff like NSSF, NHIF among others.

The Grand promise

Tsc has confirmed that the successful interns will be offered permanent jobs. However, this will depend on the usual conditions: availability of funds and the interns’ performance.

Staggering numbers of pupils and students

It is important to note that the ever-swelling numbers of learners in public schools have thrown school managers to panic mode. This is because the resources allocated to schools are not commensurate with the recruitment of teachers and the provision of other essentials in these schools. Survey on the ground indicate that the shortage of teachers in secondary schools stand at a whopping 85,258 this year up from 57,380 last year. In primary the shortage stands at 30,357. This is so bearing in mind that the ministry has to plan for the 10million pupils and about 2.8 million students. This severe shortage has forced the school managers to hire teachers on BOM terms to alleviate the situation. This has created another challenge on matters funds because the government subsidies are not for personal emoluments forcing them to survive on shoestring budgets in a bid to implement learning programmes in schools. The swelling numbers also have strained teachers especially those on duty leading to low morale and possible burnouts.

Subjects with biting shortage.

According to TSC some of the worst-hit subjects in teacher distribution are physics, cre, history, agriculture, English and math. These subjects have fewer teacher trainees even at the teacher training institutions and universities. It is ironical that schools are experiencing these acute shortages yet the country has 328,324 trained but jobless teachers!