Data from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) revealed shocking statistics about 3,359 public schools that do not have head teachers.
New data also reveals which counties have the greatest teacher shortage. There are 1,918 public elementary schools with no principals, and 1,441 senior schools with no principals.
In total, 3,359 public primary and secondary schools lack crucial institutional leadership at a time when the government is implementing critical education reforms.
It has also been revealed that Kakamega County has the nation’s worst teacher shortfall in secondary schools.
The county has 421 secondary schools and a 4,283-teacher teacher shortage. There are only 5,716 teachers in a county that is meant to have 9,999.
Kisumu County, on the other hand, has the largest primary school teacher shortage, with 4,317 vacancies across 608 institutions. The county’s elementary schools are meant to have 10,547 instructors, however there are only 6,230.
The Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) reported some of these conclusions.
According to the draught task force report, there are 42,522 tutors in nursery schools in public primary institutions. These nursery teachers are scattered across the country’s 28,818 elementary schools.
The Rift Valley region has the most nursery school instructors, with 13,589 working in 10,654 primary schools. There are 3,417 nursery schools in the Coast region.
The audit revealed a leadership crisis in primary and secondary schools, with a number of schools lacking heads. Kakamega, Kitui, and Kisii counties have the highest number of schools without principals.
According to The Standard’s review of task force statistics, 121 of Kakamega’s 895 primary schools do not have a substantive headteacher.
Kitui has 112 head teachers, Kisii has 110, Nakuru has 88, Makueni has 86, Bungoma has 81, Bomet has 77, and Nandi has 77, while Nyamira and Muranga both have 69 institutions without a substantive head.
The data, on the other hand, suggests that Garissa, Isiolo, Narok, and Samburu have the fewest schools suffering from a lack of leadership.
In Garissa, only three schools out of the 195 lack a substantive head. In Isiolo only five schools of the 112 primary institutions lack a head, Narok with 711 primary schools only lack seven heads, and in Samburu, only seven schools lack a substantive head.
For secondary schools, Kitui County has the highest number of secondary schools lacking a substantive principal in 68 schools out of the total 452 institutions.
In Homa Bay county, out of the 333 schools some 57 lack principals, while in Nakuru 56 schools don’t have a head with a total of 373 secondary schools.
Other counties topping the list of secondary schools without heads include Bomet (55), Kakamega (53), West Pokot (53), Meru (51) and Migori (50).
Data captured in the task force draft report also shows that primary schools in three counties–Baringo, Marsabit and West Pokot– have more head teachers than the number of institutions.
Baringo County which has 722 primary schools has 849 head teachers. Marsabit County which has 180 primary schools has 195 head teachers. While West Pokot with 654 primary schools has 670 head teachers.
Speaking in parliament earlier, Teachers Service Commission chief executive Dr Nancy Macharia said there exist some tutors who have attained the qualifications of head teachers but still serve as classroom teachers.
While primary schools carry the bulk of school-going children, it is secondary schools that suffer from the highest shortage of teachers.