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The Evolution to the Devolved System of Hiring
(AllAfrica.com English Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Nairobi, Aug 23, 2006 (The East African Standard/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was established by an Act of Parliament in 1967 to recruit, discipline public school teachers and keep a record of teachers in public schools.
Until the late 1990s, when automatic employment of teachers stopped, the commission would recruit and deploy graduates of public universities and colleges.
However, the commission now hires teachers to fill the gaps left by those who leave the profession on retirement, resignation, death or sacking. The positions are not filled from the TSC headquarters, but in the districts for primary school teachers and institutions in the case of secondary schools and colleges.
During the recruitment, a TSC agent must be present - for primary schools, the DEO is the agent and for other institutions, the principal. When this form of recruitment was first tried in 2001, it faced many problems.
Some of those entrusted with the responsibility were not qualified to conduct interviews, for example semi-literate school board members. Others used the opportunity to reward friends, relatives and political supporters.
School principals, too, were not blameless. They concealed interview dates and at times refused to disclose subject combinations to ward off competition on behalf of their favoured candidates.
But with time, the TSC came up with a formula to make recruitment more transparent. Interview dates, subject combinations and institutions and districts where there are vacancies are advertised in the local dailies.
But the process has its critics. Mr David Kairanga, the principal of Nyeri's Lavenda Springs High, a community school, faults the TSC for only considering a teaching stint at a public school as experience. He says this puts teachers in private and community schools at a disadvantage.
"Students in private and public schools sit the same national exams and use the same syllabus," he says.
But there is a lot of support for the recruitment that TSC has adopted. Many people say those who get the jobs like their places of work because they applied for the jobs at districts and schools of their choice.
But problems persist. An applicant for a teaching post in Uasin Gishu says the recruitment is steeped in corruption. He claims: "I was hired, but my name was removed from the official list in favour of another candidate."
In Kiambu, Machakos and Makueni, politicians claimed that some of those recruited were from outside the districts. Mr Kihumba Kamotho, a TSC public relations official, says complaints from the districts are few and are being looked into and justice will be done.
Copyright 2006 The East African Standard. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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