Taita Taveta, KENYA: As students and teachers prepare for the school opening this week across the country, a large no of P1 trained teachers in Taita Taveta are grappling with unemployment.
According to records from the Teachers Service Commision, there are over 90 trained P1 teachers who are currently unemployed in Taita Taveta County.
Mwatate, Mr. Derick Tole, 33, a P1 trained teacher from Wusi Kishamba ward in Mwatate says since he graduated in 2013, he is yet to get a job.
Ms. Defence Mwakalo 30 is a trained P1 teacher from Dembwa village in Wundanyi who says it has been difficult for her to sustain her needs as a mother of 2 children.
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Just like Derick,Mwakalo too has been jobless since 2013.
This is despite the Teachers Service Commision conducting recruitments twice a year.
Baraka FM has established that most of the unemployed P1 teachers in Taita Taveta have opted to work as PTA employed volunteers in public schools where they receive a monthly stipend of averagely sh 10,000.
The county has been listed as one of the counties where D+ students are to be admitted in TTC colleges in a bid to avert the problem of shortage of teachers.
This follows a move by the education CS Amina Mohamed who lowered the grades for students from marginalized counties and backdated it to candidates who sat for KCSE from 2006.
However, county leaders accuse the government of giving priority to teachers who are not from the county.
Mr. Daniel Makoko the County Executive for education in Taita Taveta said most teachers end up asking for a transfer after 5 years hence resulting in the deficit.
