Kenya needs 58,590 more teachers for 2026 senior school transition - TSC
Kenya’s TSC projects a shortage of 58,590 teachers for Grade 10 in 2026, with STEM and specialised subjects hardest hit, as over one million learners transition to senior school.
Kenya will require an additional 58,590 teachers next year to manage the transition of over one million learners to senior school, with the STEM pathway facing the most acute shortage.
The Teacher Service Commission (TSC) says the shortfall spans all learning areas but is most pronounced in specialised subjects such as marine and fisheries, aviation and computer studies.
According to TSC Director of Quality Assurance Reuben Nthamburi, the demand is driven by the new senior school pathways under the competency-based education (CBE) system. He said staffing projections are based on expected enrolments for Grade 10 in January 2026.
“For the projected teacher requirements for Grade 10 in January 2026, the STEM pathway, which will take about 60 per cent of the learners, that is 677,144, with about 15,046 classes, we calculated it using a class of 45, we need around 35,111 teachers. For Social Sciences, we need around 14,630 teachers and Arts and Sports 8,778, that is about 58,519,” Nthamburi said.
He said universities and teacher training institutions must urgently align their programmes with market needs, particularly in the Arts and Sports pathway, which faces severe shortages of specialists in music and dance, fine arts, theatre and film, sports and creative arts.
“In STEM, we need teachers in areas like general sciences, computer studies, aviation, electricity, media technology, building and construction, woodwork, and marine and fisheries. For Social Sciences, we’re short on teachers in indigenous languages, Sign language, Arabic, French, German and Mandarin,” he added.
Nthamburi emphasised the particularly acute shortage in marine and fisheries studies.
“I don’t know if we have any university that has marine and fisheries teachers. If there is one, please see me so that we can begin absorbing them. We need marine and fisheries teachers next year,” he said.
To bridge the gap, TSC said it plans to partner with the Marine and Fisheries Institute in Mombasa to train technical professionals and convert them into classroom-ready instructors. The commission also intends to phase in recruitment for highly technical areas where the shortages persist.
He noted that ensuring a balanced teacher-to-student ratio in specialised subjects is essential for the successful rollout of the CBE curriculum.
More than 30,000 secondary school and special needs teachers are currently undergoing retraining ahead of the transition of 1.1 million Grade 9 learners to Grade 10. The retooling targets teachers from 9,626 secondary schools, including special needs and vocational institutions, across more than 40 learning areas under the senior school curriculum.
According to the Ministry of Education, the retooling exercise is part of efforts to ensure teachers are adequately prepared to deliver the curriculum effectively at senior school level. The teachers are being trained by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, TSC and ministry officials.
Schools are also contending with infrastructure gaps, with stakeholders urging faster preparations to avoid disruptions when the academic year begins.
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