The Treasury has allocated the TSC Sh3.2 billion for teacher recruitment in the year starting July despite a request of Sh20.2 billion by the commission.
The TSC told Parliament on Wednesday the Sh17 billion financing gap will hurt its plans of increasing teacher numbers to address a biting shortage across the country.
Plans by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to hire more teachers have hit a snag after the Treasury slashed allocation for the activity by Sh17 billion.
The Treasury has allocated the TSC Sh3.2 billion for teacher recruitment in the year starting July despite a request of Sh20.2 billion by the commission.
The TSC told Parliament on Wednesday the Sh17 billion financing gap will hurt its plans of increasing teacher numbers to address a biting shortage across the country.
“The commission projected recruitment of 40,000 interns at a cost of Sh4.8 billon and normal recruitment of 25,000 teachers at a total cost of Sh15.4 billion,” TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia told the National Assembly’s Education Committee.
She said the Sh3.2 billion allocation estimates to employ 5,000 new teachers for seven months and 10,000 interns for nine months.
The TSC recently concluded hiring of 10,000 interns to bridge the biting staffing gap owing to growing student enrolment tied to free primary and secondary education.
More teachers will be required under the government’s 100 percent transition from primary school that will raise student population.
This week, the Ministry of Education announced it had attained a 99.8 percent transition target for the 2019 KCPE candidates joining Form One.
Past attempts by the TSC to recruit interns were met with resistance from Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) who saw it as demeaning to the teaching profession.
In 2009, unions opposed the hiring of 12,000 intern teachers at a time tutor shortage stood at 63,000.
At the time, the TSC proposed to pay the interns Sh10,500 in primary schools and Sh14,000 for the degree holders.
In October last year, a total of 102,918 trained but jobless teachers applied for the 10,300 internship positions the TSC advertised.
The huge recruitment drive is a desperate shot at easing a severe shortage in the basic education sector, now at more than 100,000.
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