The unemployment predicament in this country has raised its head with over 356,000 unemployed teachers setting up submissions for the 14,000 jobs publicized by the Teachers Service Commission in June last month.
The highest figure sets the stage for a firm enrolment exercise that will also leave hundreds of thousands disconsolate by failure to secure their jobs. This is contempt for there being a solemn teacher shortage in secondary schools and also in primary schools.
According to a Teachers Service Commission roadmap for the enrolment, the online submission process closed on July 7 after which the applicants who will have been qualified will be printed on the Teachers Service Commission website. This is projected to be done anytime during this week.
The Nation comprehends that for each of the publicized positions only the top five applicants will be shortlisted in a withdrawal from the past when long merit lists would be established although only a few got a chance of getting the job.
Teachers Service Commission intends to organize 1,230 teachers in the area on both pensionable, permanent and contractual basis. Aspirants who have articulated interest in the jobs are 21,194.
Primary teaching positions attracted the maximum number of applicants with 219,311 teachers articulating interest in the 4,000 new vacancies accessible. Out of the publicized 1,000 new positions for primary school teachers, the commission received 136,833 submissions.
Qualified candidates will be trained at the county level before being employed in their respective schools.
Teachers Service Commission has also publicized 8,230 vacancies to substitute teachers who have left the service through natural abrasion. The vacancies are both in post-primary institutions 1,691 and primary schools 6,539 and attracted 327,882 submissions.
Through confirmatory action, Teachers Service Commission advertised for some locations specifically targeting Wajir, Mandera, and Garissa counties, which are profoundly understaffed. Teachers from other areas have in current years resisted placement in the regions due to insecurity where non-locals are frequently on target.
Dr. Nancy Macharia, the TSC Chief Executive, said that for a person to qualify for enrolment an applicant must be teaching under the board of management in Mandera, Garissa, or Wajir counties, if not addressed from the three counties. This is to inspire teachers from the region to smear for the jobs.
She also added that the merit lists that will be produced during the workout will be used in succeeding recruitment within the financial year.
The enrolment comes at a time when foremost political players are exploiting the situation to promise skilled but unemployed teachers jobs if they win.
Raila Odinga the presidential candidate for the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party has promised to hire all unemployed teachers if he wins while his main competition, William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance has promised to hire 116,000 teachers in two years.
Unemployment among professionals’ contempt lingering under-staffing is not only in the education segment. Although public medical amenities are shorthanded thousands of medics who are either unemployed or under-employed.
Kenyan doctors prosecuted the government for employing doctors from Cuba while various of them remained jobless back in 2018. In the appeal, the doctors sued to have been representing 1,300 of their competent and licensed but unemployed colleagues.
They also opposed that the Cuban doctors would be access to better posts than Kenyan medical consultants with similar skills and abilities. The case was however discharged by Justice Onesmus Makau.
Conferring to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, youths in the 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 age struts have the uppermost quantity of the jobless at 16.3% and 9.1% respectively.