The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has reported to have been facing challenges. Among them being shortage of teachers, lack of professionalism and slow adoption of IT skills by teachers, its 2021/2022 annual report shows.

According to the report observations, alcohol and drug abuse, desertion of duty and immoral behavior affect the effective delivery of the curriculum. More worrying is the extent of mental health issues afflicting the profession with TSC saying one out of every four teachers seeking outpatient medical services exhibit a mental health disorder.

“The commission has noted with concern that a number of employees with mental health-related cases has been on the rise affecting the quality of curriculum delivery. To this end, the commission has continued to liaise with its stakeholders and partners in sensitising its employees on mental health illness. The commission has also enhanced employees’ medical schemes to facilitate better attention of mental illness related cases,” the report reads.

The report also shows that TSC hired 11,859 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms while 6,000 interns were recruited. In the 2023 Budget Policy Statement, TSC has been allocated Sh322.733 billion where Sh3.8 million is meant for the hiring of 20,000 new teachers to support junior secondary school which was rolled out in January but faces a serious staffing challenge. Sh11.1 billion will be for salaries of the 20,000 interns and 10,000 teachers hired on permanent and pensionable terms in February this year.

Under the review, 93,679 teachers for Grades One to Six were trained, bringing the total number of teachers trained in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) and competency-based assessment to 229,292. Additionally, 55,125 teachers were trained for implementation of junior secondary school.

The TSC has also cited insecurity in some parts of the country and unfavourable working conditions in arid and semi-arid areas and hard-to-staff areas as challenges.

By Jane Kibathi