Political infiltration of TSC recruitment must end

Around December last year, I attended a sports tournament organised by an MP in Western Kenya through the National Government-Constituency Development Fund. It was the finals of a soccer competition following year-long ward preliminaries. While the match was thrilling, the speeches that followed caught my attention.

When the host MP took to the podium, he began by enumerating his achievements. A peculiar one was that in that year alone, he had managed to issue 50 Teachers Service Commission (TSC) employment letters to individuals in the constituency. He added that he had already secured an equal number of letters to be dished out early this year.

Within the same period, a video that went viral on social media showed an MP from West Pokot County dishing out 15 TSC employment letters to his constituents, and former Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, while attending a funeral, was captured on camera issuing a letter to a member of the bereaved family as a gesture of sympathy. An unemployed teacher knelt down before the CS in an attempt to possibly also get the letter. Just last week, the President was reported to have ordered the employment of 18 teachers by TSC. They were employed under the Board of Management in the school where he attended a function.

These events and many more paint a grim picture of an independent institution that was once a beacon of hope for unemployed graduate teachers. TSC was among the few remaining public institutions where the recruitment process was fair and transparent. The recruitment guide allocated marks depending on various parameters, with the period since graduation awarded more marks. Many teachers would work in the private sector for a number of years waiting, and when the time came, they would almost certainly secure a TSC position.

The political infiltration of the TSC recruitment process has disenfranchised so many deserving and meriting teachers who may not be politically connected or have any other powerful connection. As a result, teachers who qualified recently are getting jobs at the expense of those who have stayed longer in the field. It is so disheartening to see someone who joined university when you were finishing finding you in the field and securing TSC employment while you are still “tarmacking”.

This trend is dangerous in four ways. First, it risks eroding the independence of TSC as an independent constitutional commission. Second, it may lead to unintended industrial unrest by the disenfranchised qualified teachers. Third, this kind of haphazard hiring is creating staff imbalances in schools. Some schools are more staffed than others and some departments in some schools are also more staffed than others. Previously, TSC would fill positions based on curriculum-based establishment, ensuring maximum utilisation of the limited human resource.

The fourth is that this action may lead to (as is already being witnessed) brain drain as qualified and experienced teachers opt to find jobs abroad. There is a high shortage of teachers, especially in elementary school and in science, technology, engineering and mathematics in many parts of the world.

We cannot continue creating a society in which it matters not what you know but whom you know, where merit is not a key consideration in recruitment. Every one of us wishes to live in a society where our children will have equal opportunities. It is my belief that TSC will reclaim its independence.

Mr Olwande is a teacher and an education policy analyst. [email protected].