The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will recruit new school heads to replace those on contract.

According to TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia the Commission will stop employment of retired Headteachers and Principals on contract.

The Commission had employed the school heads for a two year to a three year contract after their retirement.

This caused an uproar from teachers who wondered why the Commission took that route when there are many teachers ready to take up the leadership mantle.

Speaking during the official release of 2021 KCSE results at Mitihani house in Nairobi, Macharia said the school heads will be released to allow fresh recruitment to take cause.

The Commission is currently grappling with mass exit of school heads who have reached their retirement age.

Two years ago Kuppet secretary general Akelo Misori revealed that at least 25,000 teachers are set to retire by end of 2022.

Misori said most of these teachers are school administrators and especially school heads.

“Our finding is that as of November 2020, the teaching service had 25,000 teachers aged 58 and above…meaning Kenya is facing a deep teacher shortage that calls for radical measures to address,” said Kuppet secretary general Akello Misori.

According to Nancy Macharia the Commission teacher shortage currently stands at 114,581.

TSC requires at least 36,000 new teachers for effective implementation of junior secondary school.

Macharia announced that they will train secondary school teachers starting this week to prepare for junior secondary school.

A total of 60,000 teachers are targeted in this training which will include public, private and special need education teachers.

Macharia said the Commission targets to train a total of 116,024 teachers this year in preparation for January grade 7 classes.

She said by January 2023 there will be no gap in implementation of the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) because all secondary school teachers will have been trained.

At the same time Macharia noted that the Commission received sh 1.2 billion for recruiting 6,000 intern teachers this year and another sh 2.5 billion for recruiting 5,000 others on permanent terms.

According to TSC any teacher having attained the age of 50 years, may apply to the commission in writing expressing their intention to retire.

The teacher need to have served for at least 10 years in addition to being at least 50 years old.

However in line with government policy, all public servants upon attainment of 60 years, are subject to compulsory retirement.

Persons Living with Disabilities are retired at the age of 65 years in line with the Persons With Disabilities Act, 2003.

Upon retirement teachers are paid pension on a monthly basis.

Below are documents which teachers must present for immediate processing of their pension claims.

Documents required by TSC for processing a teachers pension

Retiring teachers need to avail the following to TSC documents:

1. Duly filled TSC clearance certificate.

2. Two copies of bank plate both sides.

3. Two copies of national ID card both sides.

4. Duly completed option to commute pension form in duplicate.

5. Duly completed lump sum payment form (bank form).

6. Two copies each of all promotion letters/certificates.

7. The earliest copy of pay slip showing Women’s and Children’s Pensions Scheme (WCPS) deductions for male teachers.

8. Copies of marriage certificates/ affidavits to confirm names for married teachers whose documents have different names.

9. Teachers who served as Untrained Teachers to attach NSSF statement.

10. Two copies of KRA PIN certificate.