This archive report was first published on 30 July 2019.
On July 30, 2019, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) received an extra Sh14 billion from the Treasury for hiring and training tutors on the new curriculum.
The money, part of the second supplementary budget for the last financial year that ended in June, will be used for 'Teacher Resource Management.'
With the additional funds, the budget for salaries, allowances, and other administrative costs - recurrent expenditure - for the TSC in the financial year 2018/19 increased from the initial estimate of Sh226 billion to Sh240 billion.
This is a significant development for teachers who have been pushing for the recruitment of additional teachers as the teacher-pupil ratio in the country continues to underperform.
TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia said the commission required Sh16.4 billion annually to recruit additional teachers for the next four years and Sh8.1 billion in the fifth year, plus an additional Sh2.8 billion over and above the existing allocations.
Ms Macharia noted that part of the Sh82 billion would be used to recruit 100,000 interns between next year and 2023.
She attributed the teacher shortage to rapid growth in school enrollment and initiatives in the education sector that had necessitated the establishment of new schools and the expansion of existing ones.
“These initiatives include the Government’s policy of 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary. By 2023, the teacher shortage is projected to hit 61,671 for secondary school and 34,941 for primary,” Ms Macharia said during the launch of the commission’s 2019/2023 strategic plan in Nairobi.
TSC plans to spend about Sh114 billion for projects to employ additional teachers.
Earlier in April, the Education Ministry and TSC held a four-day training for 91,320 teachers on the new competency-based curriculum (CBC) in Nairobi.
The training, launched by Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and the TSC boss, was expected to cost about Sh500 million.
