I was in a recruitment panel for a public school yesterday - 9am to 7pm!

1 teacher post (TSC) available
82 applicants
60 reported for interview
33 left after briefing
27 appeared before the panel
1 appeared but declined to be interviewed
1 was selected for the position

NB: In order to prevent manipulation by recruitment panels, TSC does not allow shortlisting of applicants. All applicants are invited for the interview.
95% of the score is taken by class of degree/diploma and year of graduation.
Only 5% is determined by the interview

TSC does NOT "post teachers" to schools!
Teachers apply directly to the schools where the vacancy has been announced.
Immediately after interview, winner is announced in presence of all applicants and is given employment forms to fill and sign. Employment letter comes in 30 days.

Mine was in an urban school in a town less than 50km from Nairobi. That's why it attracted so many applicants.
TIP: for recent graduates, your chance is urban schools are near zero! you'r better off applying in rural school in a remote place - be like Tabichi!

There are very few private schools that can match TSC salaries - very, very few.
So, many teachers in private schools are trying hard to get into TSC.

RESULTS: we selected 2012 graduate with a 2nd class - upper division degree who has been teaching in a rural private school since 2014. He has coached students in drama and reached regional level in the Drama Festival twice.

NB: A master or even a PhD degree is NOT an added advantage in the recruitment process. These are NOT considered at all in the evaluation form!

Just completed another round of teacher selection interviews. We needed one teacher (English & CRE).
48 candidates applied.
8 appeared for interview.

All applicants were diploma holders. No university graduate applied. Reason: no university offers B.Ed. (English, CRE).

Universities only offer B.Ed (linguistics & literature). Yet, in school, English language and literature is one subject.

University curricula are based on the old A-level system where English & literature were 2 separate subjects.

Now it's too late to change. 844 is on way out!

When I was teaching at Egerton in the 1990s, we implored the faculty of education to do away with B.Ed. (Physics+Chemistry). Our reason was that it is near impossible to understand university physics without knowledge of university mathematics...

However, TSC continues to advertise for teachers with this combination.

Meanwhile; I'm wondering when secondary schools will begin preparations for #CBC. It's only two years away.

Completed yet another round of teacher recruitment interviews. We needed 2 teachers to replace retired ones. Geography+History and Electrity+Physics.

The Elect+Phys was challenging. TSC regulations say that applicants must have scored C+ at KCSE in the the teaching subjects

Electricity is a rare subject in schools. Only 3 offer it in the entire county.

To enrol for BEd/DipEd (electrical technology), students are NOT required to have taken electricity at KCSE - only physics & math.

Hence vast majority of graduates do NOT have electricity at KCSE

So, we had 7 applicants.
5 had NOT taken electricity at KCSE, but had excellent college qualifications. All disqualified!

1 had taken but scored C plain. Disqualified!

1 had taken & scored B-, but with poorer college qualifications than the rest. Recruited!

Is that fair?

I don't think so. One of the disqualified applicants asked: "We applied online and were invited for interviews. Why did TSC invite us knowing that we were not qualified?"

Also, why are universities & colleges offering these courses to students who cannot qualify for the jobs?

A few of the disqualified candidates had BSc(electrical engineering) + PGDE. Surely, is TSC saying that such a person is incapable of teaching secondary school electricity just because he/she did not take the subject at KCSE?

Footnote: the retired teacher were replacing had not taken electricity in school. He's was doing an great job: 2019 KCSE mean was 9.67 & 2018 was 9.36.

TSC needs to rethink this rule about KCSE scores. It is just an unnecessary impediment

It was introduced in the mid-2000s in a bid to lock out primary school teachers from entering the "graduate teacher" salary scale.

Universities started offering BEd(primary education) degrees on an in-service basis. Many primary teachers don't have KCSE C+ in their subjects...

... so, someone came up with a "brilliant idea" to save money: lock them out of the promotion path!

But, as illustrated above, this rule is creating problems.

BTW, agriculture, business, home science, and computer studies are exempt from this requirement.

There is a deeper fundamental question: does TSC trust universities & colleges?

If you get a DipEd/BEd, the college/university is saying that it is satisfied that you can teach those subjects. But TSC doesn't believe that!

Who is TSC to question colleges/universities?

There're many complaints in this thread by people who applied but were left out of the merit list. We had the opposite problem.

A person who hadn't applied was on our list. He graduated in 1995. Is already employed by TSC & is a deputy principal! https://twitter.com/TSC_KE/status/1313850143322583040?s=19