MPs grill TSC over incomplete records of 39,000 unemployed senior teachers

The Teachers Service Commission was on the receiving end of tough questions from MPs after presenting incomplete records on thousands of registered teachers aged 45 years and above who remain outside the government payroll.

Appearing before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Education on Wednesday, the Commission was criticised for failing to provide detailed data showing where the over 39,000 teachers live or whether they are still seeking employment.

TSC Acting CEO Evaleen Mitei told MPs that as of June 2025, a total of 39,017 teachers aged between 45 and 59 were registered but not employed by the Commission.

She added that only 2,837 of them disclosed their counties and sub-counties, while the remaining 36,180 failed to provide this information during registration.

“Accordingly, the Commission is not able to analyse with accuracy the counties the said teachers hail from. Out of the 2,837, 56 are from Uasin Gishu, 10 from Homa Bay, 8 from Migori and 7 from Nandi,” she said.

But the committee, chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly, rejected this explanation and demanded a complete list showing where each of the teachers lives, saying TSC could easily extract this information from national identification records.

“Any public officer applying for a TSC job has an ID card which clearly indicates their location of origin, so actually, you do have this information,” said Melly.

The MPs also questioned whether all 39,017 teachers were still actively looking for work. Mitei admitted that many of them may no longer be in the teaching job market, having taken up work in other sectors or in private schools.

“I wish to clarify that the fact that the teachers are indicated as unemployed by the Commission does not necessarily mean that the said teachers are available in the job market. The majority of these teachers have pursued different career paths in the various sectors of our economy, including teaching in private schools,” Mitei told the committee.

Melly directed the Commission to clean up its records and separate those who are still interested in teaching from those who are not, and present the revised list in two weeks.

“The fact that you are employers of primary and secondary schools, we do not want Early Childhood Development teachers. Give us clear data on those aged 45 and above who are not employed,” Melly said.

He also asked TSC to submit a policy document explaining how it plans to give employment opportunities to older teachers if positions arise.

“The aim of the statement was to see how we can have affirmative action to get them employed. Give us the list of all people in two weeks,” he said.

Mitei asked for time to prepare a response on how affirmative action would be applied to aged tutors and how such cases would be handled in future recruitment.

TSC Legal Director Cavin Ayuor said the Commission was limited by the law, which does not require teachers to give county or sub-county information during registration.

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“When the law was drafted, it did not mandate us to collect county-specific data. We have combed through the register but are unable to retrieve that level of detail for the 39,017 teachers. However, for the 1,264 aged teachers who applied for recruitment in the 2024/25 financial year, we do have sub-county data,” Ayuor said.

According to Mitei, during the 2024/25 financial year, the Commission received 1,264 applications from teachers aged 45 years and above. Of these, 516 were hired.

She noted that the Commission applies a scoring system that awards extra points based on the applicant’s age and graduation year, giving older candidates an advantage where scores tie.

“In cases where two or more candidates score equally after all parameters are considered, age is used as a tie-breaker, with preference given to the older applicant,” she explained.

Mitei said that to speed up recruitment and reduce the delays that lead to older job seekers, TSC has been asking Parliament for increased funding.

“The Commission has consistently appealed to the National Assembly for an enhanced budget for the recruitment of teachers. Recruitment of teachers across the country is premised on the availability of funds and the existence of vacancies in authorised establishments,” she said.

The MPs' concerns follow a 2019 ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which found that the Commission’s use of age in recruitment was discriminatory. Since then, there has been increased pressure on the Commission to give older teachers a fair chance at employment.