The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has terminated the services of the 10,000 relief teachers recruited last year following the nationwide teachers’ strike that ensued at the beginning of the third term last year.

According to an internal memo signed by the acting director teacher management Mary Rotich, dated December 30, the contracts of the teachers will not be renewed.

“This is to advise you that the relief teachers engaged should not continue their services after the expiry of the three months contract,” said Ms Rotich. The statement is directed to all the TSC County Directors.

Last year September TSC advertised a three month job opportunity for 70,000-relief teachers, where by 50,000 of these were to be hired to teach in primary schools while the other 20,000 were for post primary schools.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) had asked TSC to convert the relief teachers into permanent and pensionable staff in order to increase the pupil _teacher ratio (PTR). The unions maintain that there is a shortage of about 80,000 teachers.

LOW PUPIL -TEACHER RATIO

The pupil _teacher ratio (PTR) in Kenya’s public education sector continues to be one of the key challenges especially since the inception of free primary education which has continued to increased enrolment rates.

However, according to The 2014 Basic Education Statistical Booklet, the government has maintained that the ratio of government-employed teachers to students is within an acceptable range only that the problem lies in the distribution of the available teachers across the country.