Teachers unions urge TSC to balance out staff in Taita Taveta

Teachers unions have called on Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to balance out staff in Taita Taveta, saying some schools were understaffed while others have more teachers.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education (Kuppet) said the exercise will improve the teacher to learner ratio in the county. 

Knut branch Executive Secretary Lenox Mshilla and his Kuppet counterpart Ismail Omoke said some schools in the county have double the number of teachers they need while others have a shortage.

Mr Mshilla said rural primary schools are the worst hit by the teacher shortage, while others like Mwanyambo Primary in Voi town have 20 extra teachers.

.

Keep Reading business

•  S Sudan threatens to suspend Stanbic licence in Sh722m row
•  KRA rolls out trade initiatives to boost exports
•  'It was an act of God', judge rules in Sh2.3 billion KenGen compensation case
•  Motoring: Water vs coolant- which is better for your car?
•  Surge in high-end hotels spurs visits by foreign tourists

He noted that Mwamunga, Kalela, Voi and Mwakingali Primary Schools in Voi town were overstaffed. The union said most teachers lobby to be posted to schools in towns, disadvantaging rural areas.

“We have more teachers in the county but they have been centralised in towns and what is required is only balancing of the tutors to adequately address the huge gap,” said Mshilla.

The union officials disclosed that senior secondary schools have a shortage of 529 teachers while in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) 495 teachers.

“Some schools, especially in towns, are in excess of teachers at the expense of the rural ones. This is because some teachers are sick and are working in towns to easily access health care services while others prefer working in towns to benefit from hardship allowances than in rural schools which do not benefit from the allowance hence causing the big teacher shortage,” Mshilla said.

Omoke said on Tuesday that the shortage of teachers was not only affecting the quality of education in the region but also performance of schools in national examinations.

He blamed the shortage of teachers on a lack of balancing out, hardship allowances and alcohol related deaths. “We have lost quite a number of teachers to alcohol related deaths,” he said.

Omoke urged TSC to deploy excess teachers to JSS and rural schools to bridge the gap.

In an earlier interview, Khalif Hirey, the new County Director of Education disclosed that schools have serious staff challenges with Dr Aggrey Boys urgently requiring 30 teachers, canon Kituri 26, Mwangeka Girls 24 and St Mary’s Boys Lushangonyi Boys Lushangonyi 18 respectively.

Some heads said they had agreed with parents to employ teachers as they wait for the government to recruit more teachers to address the huge gap which is being experienced by local schools.