KUPPET Urges TSC to Prioritise Unemployed Teachers During Recruitment.
KUPPET has urged TSC to prioritize unemployed teachers when hiring 30,000 tutors.
On Thursday, December 16, the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) addressed the media through National Chairman Omboko Milemba.
Omboko encouraged the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to be fair in recruitment.
“TSC must be called to order to be as fair as possible. We have teachers who cleared colleges in 2010 and 2011, and even 2009, but have yet to be employed.
"Yet we have those that cleared in 2015, and 2016 and are employed. This is where the rubber meets the road,” stated KUPPET chairperson Omboko Milemba.
In addition, he cautioned against the influence of politicians and other state agencies in the mass hiring of Junior Secondary School teachers.
“I want to ask that the commission must be very fair, no politician should interfere in the recruitment,” Milemba added.
He said some of the teachers were from disadvantaged families and needed the Commission-advertised positions.
“The Commission must follow the regulations very clearly. The teachers who left college earlier must be given the first priority. This is the only way we will become fair,” he demanded.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) told lawmakers the same thing on Wednesday, December 14.
“The recruitment of teachers is within the mandate of the commission."
"Anyone trying to get involved in the recruitment should be condemned in the highest terms possible,” KNUT secretary general Collins Oyuu stated.
It was barely days after MPs put TSC on notice over an unfair recruitment process.
Parliament told the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) about the 35,550 new teachers it would hire for primary and junior secondary schools.
MPs told TSC CEO Nancy Macharia that hiring and promoting teachers has always been based on fraud instead of merit and experience and that this shouldn’t happen again this year.
The National Assembly Committee on Education, chaired by Julius Melly (Tinderet), lamented that promotions and recruitment had long hinged on how much one was ready to pay or if one knew someone at TSC, leaving thousands of qualified and deserving teachers unemployed.
MPs said that some teachers gain permanent jobs three months after graduating, but others who graduated in 2010 are still unemployed due to corruption.
Mr. Melly instructed TSC to increase control to prevent this year’s recruitment from involving money.
Mr. Timothy Kipchumba (Marakwet West) requested the TSC boss to ensure fair recruitment this year to allow worthy teachers a chance to serve the country.
The TSC already announced hiring nearly 30,000 teachers for Junior Secondary Schools in 2023.
“TSC invites applications from qualified candidates to fill the vacancies to support the implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC),” read part of the notice dated Friday, December 9.
KUPPET Urges TSC to Prioritise Unemployed Teachers During Recruitment