Garissa leaders seek jobs for 1,700 trainee teachers

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Leaders in Garissa have urged the Teachers Service Commission to move with speed and absorb all 1,700 teacher trainees graduating from the Garissa Teachers Training College.

They said their recruitment will address the persistent staffing crisis in Northeastern.

The first cohort of locally trained teachers is expected to graduate in October, with between 70 and 80 per cent of the trainees drawn from the region.

Speaking at Garissa High School, Garissa Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) executive secretary Abdirizack Hussein urged the TSC to prioritise the trainees and deploy them to schools immediately after graduation.

“I therefore appeal to the TSC to make sure this first cohort is fully absorbed into our schools to fill the gap that currently exists. It is my prayer that all of them are absorbed,” he said.

Hussein said expanding teacher training opportunities for local youth was a significant step towards addressing the long-standing staffing crisis, particularly in schools located in hardship and insecurity-prone areas.

He said recruiting local teachers provides greater stability because they understand the environment and are more likely to remain in local schools.

“Many junior secondary schools continue to grapple with serious teacher shortages. So dire is the situation that some institutions are forced to rely heavily on headteachers to keep learning going,” Hussein said.

The Knut official linked part of the staffing crisis to insecurity in border areas, noting non-local teachers often seek transfers when security conditions deteriorate.

Garissa Township MP Dekow Mohamed said teacher shortages had affected the entire Northeastern region, with learners bearing the burden.

“For the longest time, we have had an issue with teacher shortages—not only in Garissa, but the entire region—and as we all know, this has had severe effects on our education standards,” he said.

“Our children have borne the brunt of this, with many schools literally operating with a single teacher. It is a situation that has had a direct impact on performance.”

Dekow credited changes in teacher-training admission requirements with opening opportunities for young people from marginalised communities.

The Presidential Working Party on Education Reform recommended changes to teacher education, including a review of entry requirements for the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE).

The reform subsequently removed subject-cluster requirements, leaving the general KCSE mean grade of C (plain) as the key admission threshold.

“The policy change that saw the government relax the entry requirements for the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education in Teacher Training Colleges was a real game-changer for our region,” Dekow said.

The legislator urged the government to ensure the investment in training translates into employment.

“We are asking the government to fast-track the recruitment of the 1,700 graduates who will be coming out of Garissa Teachers Training College and post them to learning institutions immediately,” he said.

The push came as President William Ruto highlighted teacher recruitment, infrastructure development and expanded learning opportunities in marginalised areas as part of efforts to improve national education standards.

The government has expanded teacher-training capacity across Northeastern, with institutions in Wajir and Mandera complementing Garissa Teachers Training College.

Ruto said in June that 1,800 local teachers from Garissa, Wajir and Mandera had been recruited under the initiative and would be deployed within the region.

The President previously linked local teacher training to solving staffing challenges in Northeastern, noting that insecurity often prompts teachers recruited from other regions to seek transfers.

For local leaders, the upcoming test is whether increased investment in teacher training will translate into actual classroom staffing.

Analysis

The demand for immediate employment for Garissa’s first large cohort of locally trained teachers highlights the severe staffing crisis in Northeastern schools. Training more youth from the region could improve continuity where insecurity and mass transfers have disrupted learning. However, the ultimate test remains whether TSC recruitment keeps pace with the growing pool of graduates and converts training investments into deployed teachers in classrooms where shortages remain acute.