For secondary schools, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) intends to create a data bank of interviewed teachers to make it easier to replace those who leave the service during the 2022–2023 fiscal year.
The Commission listed approximately 219,311 unemployed secondary school teachers in mid-July 2022. These teachers had applied for only 4, 000 new secondary school openings, and only five candidates (teachers) were shortlisted for each opening.
The Board of Management would be expected to create a vacancy-specific merit list from the list of five candidates who were shortlisted and interviewed for each opening at every secondary school in the nation.
The merit list shall be used in TSC subsequent and similar recruitment in the County, as per the recruitment guidelines for post-primary teachers on permanent and pensionable terms published under Circular No. 9/2022 dated June 30, 2022 by the Commission’s Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Nancy Macharia.
According to Dr. Macharia’s statement in the Circular, “The Merit List shall be used in the subsequent recruiting processes involving a similar position in the County during the Financial Year or as instructed by the Commission from time to time.”
As a result, candidates in the data bank will be given preference in any upcoming hiring throughout the 2022–2023 fiscal year, which runs from July 2022 to June 2023.
TSC won’t have to undergo a new hiring process, as was the case previously, and the decision will drastically reduce the costs associated with the recruitment process.
When the Commission replaces instructors who leave the service due to natural attrition, teachers who were shortlisted and who attended the recently completed interviews will be given priority.
The school selection panels must submit the list to the TSC Sub-County Directors for compilation of the subject-specific merit list after creating the vacancy-specific merit list in accordance with the regulations. The County Directors will use the databank to fill subject-specific vacancies in subsequent recruitment processes within the County.
The school selection panel will create a Merit List unique to the opening during the interview. The Merit List shall be used in any subsequent hiring procedures for a comparable position in the County during the current fiscal year or as otherwise authorized by the Commission,” Dr. Macharia was told.
The five candidates who were shortlisted for each advertised position and whose names are on the School Selection Panel’s vacancy-specific merit list, which is utilized to create subject-specific merit list data banks, are taken from applicant lists created by the TSC system.
The Regional Director will create the Regional subject specific merit lists and submit them to the TSC Director Staffing at the Headquarters when the TSC County Director has forwarded the subject-specific merit list to him or her.
“Those leaving service during the Financial Year will be replaced using this data bank of interviewed candidates. According to Dr. Macharia’s statement in the Circular, the subject-specific data bank will be used to fill positions that arise at the county, regional, and national levels during the Financial Year.
The Commission adds that replacement must be done using the Regional data bank when candidates are exhausted from the subject-specific County data bank, and replacement must be done using the Subject-Specific County data bank when candidates are exhausted from a region.
When the number of candidates in the County data bank for that subject is exhausted, a replacement will be made using the Regional data bank. “Vacancies will be filled utilizing the Subject Specific National Data Bank where candidates have been exhausted within an area,” stated Dr. Macharia in the Circular.
She continues, “Vacancies arising from the County, Region, and nationally throughout the Financial Year shall be filled from the subject specific data bank.”
In this FY, the Commission advertised 14, 000 new openings in both primary and secondary schools, including 4, 000 in secondary and 1,000 in primary schools. Additionally, 8,230 openings were also available to fill the positions left vacant by teachers who left the service due to natural attrition.
