The teachers’ employer is set to recruit 20,000 teachers this year (2024) as the government moves to ease shortage of teachers in junior secondary schools (JSS).

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Nancy Macharia said the shortage stands at 42,117 following the transition of Grade 7 learners to Grade 8 this year.

Dr Macharia explained that the number of teachers required in junior secondary schools (JSS) this year is 99,045, against the current number of 56,928.

“Government is progressively funding the TSC for the recruitment of additional teachers until optimal levels are achieved,” she said.

The move will further see a reduction of teachers’ workload and better delivery of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), especially when the 1.2 million learners who sat the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) last year have joined Grade 7 this year.

The government started the rollout of the CBC in 2018, introducing disruptive changes where elementary education is divided into pre-primary and primary, taking two and six years respectively.

This means that the final class in primary school is Grade 6, after which learners transition to junior secondary starting from Grade 7 up to Grade 9.

While JSS is grappling with teacher shortage, primary schools now have surplus 18,194 teachers following a reduction in the number of classes at this level as the CBC rolls out. Dr Macharia said the 18,194 primary school teachers will be equitably distributed to institutions across the country in a move by the Commission to achieve balanced teacher-learner levels.

“The Commission will redistribute all these teachers to schools to ensure all institutions have balanced and lower teacher:learner ratios,” she said.

The government introduced the new curriculum to transform the education system from examination based to competency-based.

Teachers will target to improve learners’ critical thinking and problem solving skills and enhance creativity and communication skills to help them handle real-life situations better.

The move to hire more teachers follows a string of initiatives the Commission has adopted to boost delivery of quality teaching and learning.

The Commission, for instance, retooled 56,928 teachers in October last year ahead of their deployment to junior secondary schools. So far, more than 200,000 teachers have been sensitized on the new syllabus through a joint multi-agency approach.

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