The Teachers Service Commission has received more than 350, 000 applications from teachers seeking jobs this week.
This comes after the commission advertised 9,000 teaching vacancies for both primary and secondary teachers in the ongoing recruitment exercise.
Many teachers who had applied for the jobs are now wondering if they even stand a chance.
“I have very little hopes this time around. 350,000 is massive, and I know they will be picking interns,” said Mercy who graduated from Teachers Training College in 2014.
I decided to go back to teaching
Janet* who graduated from the university of Nairobi in 2011 – and has been farming ever since, has decided to go back to teaching. She too applied for a teaching position. She is among the sea of people from which the teachers commission will be looking to pick the right candidates.
“I have decided to go teach because I needed some security in my job. I have been farming, and yes it was rewarding. But sometimes it got tough, and with no insurance or pension, I began fearing for the future. I am over 30 years now, I need to settle down now,” she told Mwanahabari.co.ke.
Janet and Mercy will be among hundreds of thousands who will go through an interview exercise slated for between Thursday, July 22, and Wednesday, July 28.
A report by Daily Nation on Monday, July 19, indicated that the commission intends to pick the successful candidates by September 2021.
Spread across the country
The interview panels will consist of the chair of the board of management, school principals, TSC County Director and a subject specialist and will be spread across the country.
The lists have already been shared with Sub-County Directors.
When the interviews are done, applicants who may harbour complaints will be allowed to lodge them between Friday, July 28 and Friday, August 6, 2021.
Shocking scoresheet
The candidate will be hoping to land jobs even though many had already expressed their reservation at the interview scoresheet which was shared by the commission.
The scoresheet as seen by Mwanahabari.co.ke was obviously skewed to favour trained teachers who had served as interns in various schools for the commission.
According to the scoresheet, interns who will present valid evidence of their internship will be awarded 30 points. This means that those who are not interns – or have never interned for TSC – will have zero points. That’s a huge head-start.