Factors affecting selection of teachers in public secondary schools by the teachers service commission in Kenya: a case of Kirinyaga West District
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Date
2013-01-29
Authors
Gachigi, Catherine Wangui
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Abstract
The Teacher Service Commission has been facing many hiccups in its pursuit of selecting teachers in Public secondary schools. Teachers are probably the most important resources that any country can have. The achievement of successful schooling is largely dependent on the quality of the teaching force. Therefore the process of recruiting and selecting teaching staff should be done with care. This study focused on Kirinyaga West District, where there are public secondary schools with teachers employed by T.S.C like any other district in Kenya. Selection of teaching staff in public secondary schools is done by the T.S.C agent (B. 0 . G) following the T.S.C guidelines. Kirinyaga West District had recorded a shortfall of about one hundred and twenty teachers in Public secondary schools by March 2010. The Teacher- student ratio in some schools in the district was too high. The students' performance was equally not good. Could all these issues be attributed to the selection process of the teaching staff? The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting selection of teachers in public secondary schools in Kenya, and specifically in Kirinyaga West District. The study was to find out how selection tools, manpower planning at BOG level, job specification of the applicant and training and competency of the selection panels affects Selection. Selection was the independent variable which was influenced by the dependant variables such as selection tools, manpower planning at BOG level, training and competency of the selection panels an d job specification of the applicant. The study will be of great help to the Government, TSC, Top school management and other stakeholders who will understand the implications of good or poor selection procedures. The study focused on Head teachers and BOG chairpersons in respective schools. The study adopted descriptive research design with the population of interest being Head teachers and BOG chairpersons. Only fifteen Headteachers and fifteen BOG Chairpersons responded out of them in the twenty five public secondary schools through census in K WD. Data was collected using questionnaires for both the Head teachers, BOG chairpersons from those schools and those with no legally constituted B.O.Gs the D.E.O filled in. The questionnaire was pre-tested by being administered to two respondents who were not considered during the actual data collection so as to establish its validity and reliability before being administered to the respondents. The data was analyzed quantitatively where frequencies, percentages and inferential statistics was used and also qualitatively. The limitations of the study were, the respondents of the questionnaire ticked anything to satisfy the researcher, others were biased on their concept of selection and probably hide the most important information, and some couldn't understand some technical words such as manpower planning as used in H.R.M. Some respondents took a very longtime to fill in the questionnaire. Based on the findings, the study concluded that selection of public secondary school teachers was not a big challenge to the panelists since they were always provided with guidelines by the T.S.C on teacher selection. However their training and knowledge ability is of paramount. Limiting the applicant to the district of his/her origin was considered inappropriate. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education, T.S.C and colleges/universities should work in unison on teacher training and preparations to ensure those with proper qualifications are employed.
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