The government through Teachers Service Commission, TSC, is set to retool 60,000 teachers as the preparation to set up Junior Secondary school enters advanced stage.
The training on the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) system is slated for next month once the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education KCSE has been done and dusted.
“Our teachers are ready for the CBC. In fact, we shall continue to offer them training. For those not employed by us, it is worth noting that they also are being trained so that when we also absorb them, there will be no need to re-tool them,” she said yesterday.
On teacher shortage, Dr Macharia said the commission was optimistic that the government will hire 5,000 new tutors. “This is an election year. We know there are limited resources but we remain hopeful that the government will listen to us and ensure our children have enough teachers.”
According to the commission, so far 229,000 tutors have undergone training.
Macharia said TSC is working towards ensuring that the 100,000 deficit will be addressed for efficiency in the ministry of Education and to ensure that Competency-based Curriculum (CBC) is effective.
“The government gives us money to hire about 5,000 teachers a year. When we advertise for vacancies we get overwhelming applications but our hands are tied,” Macharia said.
The TSC boss said the commission is engaging interns as a stop-gap measure to bridge the gap.
She said the commission shares the positions equitably.