TSC Advises TTCs to Stop Primary Teacher Enrollments

TSC Advises TTCs to Stop Primary Teacher Enrollments.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has urged Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) to stop enrolling students for primary school teacher training due to the lack of job opportunities in the sector.

The commission revealed that there is already a surplus of trained primary school teachers, and additional recruitment is unnecessary under current circumstances. TTCs have been cautioned that continuing to train more primary teachers may worsen the situation in an already saturated job market.

Following curriculum reforms that removed Standards 6, 7, and 8, a significant number of primary school teachers became redundant. This resulted in a surplus of 18,072 teachers already on the TSC payroll. These excess teachers are a product of the shift to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), which reduced the number of classes in primary school and created an imbalance in teacher deployment.

To address the shortage in other learning levels, the TSC began redeploying excess primary school teachers to junior secondary and special schools. The commission noted that special needs institutions currently face a deficit of 5,362 teachers.

Additionally, the implementation of CBC in junior and senior secondary schools requires 98,261 more teachers, including 72,422 for junior secondary alone. As a result, TSC has redirected employment efforts towards hiring qualified secondary school teachers with Diplomas and Degrees.

Despite the efforts to redistribute teaching staff, many primary school teachers holding Primary Teacher Education (PTE) certificates and Diplomas in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) remain jobless.

Some have even upgraded their qualifications to the Upgraded Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (UDPTE) in an attempt to improve their employability under the CBC framework. Nonetheless, employment opportunities for primary school teachers have not increased, and frustrations are growing.

No Major Recruitment Drives in Recent Years

Over the past two years, no mass recruitment of primary school teachers has taken place. Only replacement-based hiring has occurred, which has done little to reduce the number of unemployed teachers.

This has led to growing unrest, with some PTE-trained teachers, unemployed since as far back as 2012, threatening to hold demonstrations at the TSC offices in Upper Hill to demand employment.

TSC has come under fire over claims that political figures have been distributing teacher employment letters at public rallies, undermining the commission’s role. Allegations were made that TSC had handed over its teacher recruitment responsibilities to politicians, leading to concerns about the integrity of the process.

The commission, however, has denied these accusations, asserting that recruitment is done transparently and according to established procedures published on their website.

The matter was highlighted during a parliamentary session where concerns were raised about cabinet secretaries reportedly issuing appointment letters. The committee emphasized that allowing political interference in teacher recruitment sets a bad precedent. There was a call to restore the commission’s full authority in the hiring process to maintain professionalism and trust in the education sector.

TSC Advises TTCs to Stop Primary Teacher Enrollments.

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