TSC in crisis talks on 800 new staff

The Teachers Service Commission is in crisis talks with senior secretariat staff over the employment of 800 personnel.  The 600 teachers and 200 secretariat personnel were hired at the tail-end of the tenure of former commission CEO Gabriel Longoboini.  TSC last month appointed Nancy Macharia to succeed Longoboini after his decade-long tenure ended in June.

The Star has established that the commission refused to put the teachers on the payroll after the Finance department said there are no funds to sustain the recruitment. 

The teachers, both P1 certificate holders and graduates, have reported to their workstations while the secretariat staff are undergoing induction at the TSC headquarters, Upper Hill, Nairobi.  “There was no declaration of the vacancies and no advertisement was done,” a senior TSC official told the Star in confidence for fear of reprisals. 

The Star has seen 10 letters of teachers appointed to work in various schools in Northeastern, Pokot and Turkana counties signed on various dates in April and early May by Longoboini.  The TSC's hiring procedure involves the commission sitting and approving a budget for additional teachers.  This allows for advertisement of available vacancies in the media so that the recruitment is done competitively.  The commission then mandates schools' boards of management to interview and forward to TSC names of successful candidates, all applicants together with their performance marks. 

Prior approval is not required when replacing teachers who have left the service by either natural attrition or resignation as the money is already in the budget. 

Yesterday TSC advertised vacancies for 5,000 primary and secondary school teachers.  It has a shortage of 80,000 teachers for public primary and secondary schools.  Another top TSC official told the Star the employment of the 800 has sparked off a management standoff at the country’s largest single employment agency.

The TSC has a workforce of more than 280,000.  “The issue came to the attention of the commission chairperson after receiving numerous inquiries by the beneficiaries who wanted to know why they had not been paid their June salaries,” the source said.

Reference : www.the-star.co.ke