356,000 Jobless Teachers Apply For 14,000 TSC Jobs
The country’s unemployment crisis has erupted, with over 356,000 jobless teachers applying for the 14,000 jobs advertised by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) last month.
The large number of applicants sets the stage for a competitive recruitment process that will leave hundreds of thousands disappointed by their inability to secure employment.
Despite the fact that there is a severe teacher shortage in public primary and secondary schools.
According to a TSC recruitment roadmap, the online application process closed on July 7, and the candidates who were shortlisted will be published on the TSC website.
This is expected to be completed this week.
According to Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia, the teacher shortage in public schools was 103,931 as of January of this year.
Macharia stated before the Senate Education Committee that there is a shortage in primary and secondary schools.
According to TSC documents presented to the committee, post-primary institutions are short 57,822 teachers, while primary schools are short 46,109.
Raila Odinga, the presidential candidate of the One Kenya Coalition Party, has promised to hire all unemployed teachers if he wins, while his main rival, Deputy President William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance, has promised to hire 116,000 teachers in two years.
Professional joblessness, despite chronic understaffing, is not limited to the education sector. Despite the fact that public hospitals are understaffed, thousands of doctors are unemployed or underemployed.
Kenyan doctors sued the government in 2018 for hiring Cuban doctors while many of them remained unemployed.
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The doctors claimed in their petition to be representing approximately 1,300 of their qualified and licensed but jobless colleagues.
They also contended that Cuban doctors would be paid more than Kenyan doctors with comparable skills and proficiency.
However, Justice Onesmus Makau dismissed the case.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, youths aged 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 have the highest proportion of unemployed people, at 16.3% and 9.1%, respectively.
356,000 Jobless Teachers Apply For 14,000 TSC Jobs