6,000 Teachers To Be Deployed to Special Schools

TSC to Deploy 6,000 Teachers to Special Schools

In an effort to address the biting teacher shortage in special school, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has agreed with Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET) to move 6,000 teachers to Special Schools.

The shortage was created after a section of teachers moved to regular schools in order to secure promotions.

Therefore, these teachers who moved from special schools to regular will be moved back to special schools in order to address the shortage experienced in these special units.

This exercise will kick off in second term, with the first batch. The commission has mentioned that it will move these teachers in three phases.

1,750 teachers will be moved in the first batch while the second batch of 2,000 teachers will be done in December 2024. The last phase will now involve 347 teachers who were initial moved from SNE to regular schools.

The KUSNET Chairman Peter Sitienei said this move will elevate standards in special schools.

The Chairman noted that there are 300 primary school teachers and 38 secondary school teachers taking care of Special Needs learners.

Sitienei went ahead to say that those teachers with special units currently teaching in regular schools will be relieved of their teaching duties and responsibilities to concentrate on offering services to learners with special needs.

“Special needs children need to be assessed at county level. There is need to develop devolved units of cycle education centres in all our counties. It requires a lot of manpower, finances, and reorganisation since we need the teachers to pay full attention to the learners so that curriculum can be delivered effectively,” he said.

The chairman sent a request to these teachers to submit their redeployment to special schools.

The commission, during the meeting agreed with KUSNET leadership it will establish an SNE department at the headquarters and staff it with knowledge personnel on matters of Special Needs.

This move has been necessitated by the proposal by the National Assembly Education committee to increase funding for special needs institutions in order to improve learning.

This matter came to light when Baringo Central MP Joshua Kandie who is a member of the parliamentary committee told Education CS Machogu that Special Needs schools are understaffed in the country.

“Some parents are forced to hide their children at home because they cannot afford to take them to school since some of them are demanding money,” he said.

In response to this, Machogu admitted there is a problem in these schools but blamed the exchequer over funding claims.

“Learners with special needs require more resources, including a staffing ratio of one teacher to one learner for those with severe disabilities,” he said.

While addressing the Education ministry, Nabii Nabwera who is the MP of Lugari constituency accused the Ministry officials of making decisions without knowing what is going on in the ground.

“For every deaf or blind child there must be one helper. If you take people’s children to a school, where they are 30 with 10 helpers, you have only sent them to die there,” said Nabwera.

TSC to Deploy 6,000 Teachers to Special Schools