The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has been asked to post more teachers to Garissa County if the new curriculum was to succeed in the area.
Speaking Monday during the launch of education quality dialogues for North Eastern region at Garissa High School, county Deputy Governor, Abdi Dagane said TSC should look for personnel who have the drive and motivation to teach in the locality deemed hardship, even if they may not have attained the minimum requirements as stipulated by the government.
Dagane said in order for the new curriculum to be fully implemented, there was need to bridge the glaring shortage of teachers that has bedeviled the region over the years.
“As a county we cannot speak of achieving quality education before overcoming outstanding challenges among them lack of enough teachers and basic school infrastructure. By employing teaching personnel like form four leavers we provide the much needed manpower that is lacking in running our schools,” he said.
“Most of us were taught by class seven leavers and even fellow students during our school days, but we did not turn out as failures. Therefore it is a shame that our pupils remain without teachers, despite there being people who are willing to teach but they can’t meet TSC minimum qualifications,” he added.
In May this year, the Ministry of Education at the behest of the TSC terminated the training of some 3,000 teachers with D+ minimum grade in teacher training colleges across the country. At least 300 of them were trainees at the Garissa Teachers Training College who were also sent home.
However, the Deputy Governor said the county was in full support for the new curriculum and had completed re-training of its 200 ECD teachers in line with the new system of education.
Others present during the event included Director General Ministry of Education, Elyas Abdi, County Commissioner Meru Mwangi and Dadaab MP, Mohamed Dahir among others.
By Jacob Songok
