The debate over teacher recruitment that took place in Parliament on Thursday was quite significant. Schools are suffering due to acute teacher shortage while the Ministry of Education and Treasury are dithering over recruitment.

Thus, it is critical that Parliament turns spotlight on the matter so that a quick resolution is realised.

Basically, teacher recruitment was stopped last year because of a dispute over the process. Presenting the 2009/10 Budget last June, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta proposed to devolve teacher recruitment to the constituency under the economic stimulus package.

In turn, the Education Ministry undertook to employ qualified teachers as interns, a matter that teachers' unions opposed and resorted to courts' resolution.

Equally, the Teachers Service Commission rejected the plan on the basis that it was illegal. For, the TSC Act does not allow employment of casuals and neither does it allow any other authority to recruit teachers for public schools.

The stalemate compelled Prime Minister Raila Odinga to plead to the Kenya National Union of Teachers to drop the court matter on the understanding that he would broker dialogue between them, the TSC and Education minister. That never happened.

The fact of the matter is simple. The Government should give money to the TSC to do its job. But as Education Minister Sam Ongeri told Parliament, MPs are culpable in this stand-off.

They passed the Budget that transferred teachers' money to the constituencies without questioning the infrastructure for implementing it.

To this extent, Parliament must discuss ways of untangling this web just as much as Prof Ongeri must drop his grandstanding and enter into discussion with Knut and TSC to resolve the rigmarole expeditiously.

To be sure, independent estimates show that there is a deficit of more than 70,000 teachers in public schools. Minister Ongeri, however, talks of a conservative figure of 65,000. More importantly, Education Ministry must craft a more sustainable and practical policy on teacher recruitment and utilisation.

Ad hoc and politically-inspired policies threaten to undermine the quality of teaching in public schools.