The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has ordered all teachers to make sure they are vaccinated against Covid-19 within the next seven days.
The announcement came just seven days until the expiry of the August 23 deadline issued by the Head of Public Service Dr. Joseph Kinyua.
Kinyu said that all public servants who will not have taken the jab by August 23 will face disciplinary action.
TSC has reiterated Kinyua’s rallying call, adding that all teachers who fail to get the jab will face disciplinary action.
The order comes at a time that TSC has expressed shock at the poor turn out of teachers seeking to be vaccinated even as the country grapple with the Covid-19 menace.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, only 33 per cent (110,432 teachers) of the entire teachers’ population of over 300,000 has been fully vaccinated.
The commission says it targets to vaccinate a total of 330,671 teachers who are on the TSC payroll, and about 150,000 others in private schools.
“We will be asking from our county directors and regional directors the number of teachers they have facilitated to get the vaccination and how many teachers are not vaccinated and for whatever reasons because MoH has assured us that there are enough vaccines,” stated TSC CEO Nancy Macharia.
Of all the teachers, 549 have contracted Corona since the pandemic was reported out of which 81 have died.
The government has expressed concern over the poor uptake of the vaccine especially among the public servants.
There are, however, concerns among teachers that the vaccinations are administered on weekdays when most of them are in school teaching, and so many do not have time to rush and get the jab.