This year, there’s been a worrying trend of many Teachers Service Commission employees resigning from their jobs and leaving the TSC to pursue better opportunities overseas.

The most popular destinations for these teachers are the United States and the United Kingdom, where there’s a high demand for their skills due to a labour shortage.

According to media reports, the US and UK face a shortage exceeding 400,000 teachers. Kenyan educators are quickly stepping up to fill these gaps.

Furthermore, these teachers have noted that the salaries offered abroad are way better than what most TSC teachers earn in Kenya.

“As a teacher in Kenya, the only thing you can afford is maybe to build a small 2-bedroom house and pay school fees for two children,” Felix Wanyaga told NTV in a Sunday interview.

They also attribute the steady relocations to the skewed and delayed promotions. They called upon the government to increase teachers lest they seek better opportunities abroad.

“We used to be promoted based on merit, but that stopped. We were told that you need to go back to class if you need to get a promotion, so I had to go back to class,” another teacher, Sylvia Wanjiru painfully narrated.

TSC Registration Rules and Changes

According to Peter Ruhiri of Pesuar Consultancy, countries globally are facing teacher shortages as many educators succumbed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A 2022 report by the US Department of Education notes that 41 states in America are facing shortages in at least 1 subject area or grade level.

“Opportunities are there and I’m telling you as we speak I have thousands and thousands of teachers who are reaching out to me,” said Peter.

The government’s decision to halt the permanent employment of 46,000 Junior Secondary School interns has also contributed to these drastic changes. The president announced budget cuts as part of austerity measures, affecting the hiring of teachers.

Despite rising unemployment, the government promised to start exporting teachers to other countries in early 2024. However, the TSC has introduced barriers for primary and secondary school teachers seeking to advance their careers abroad.