Nairobi — How many of you want to become teachers?"

Not a single hand was raised among hundreds of primary and secondary school students at an awards presentation day in Othaya recently.

Obviously shocked, newly appointed Education permanent secretary James ole Kiyiapi repeated the question. And again, no hands went up. The Othaya North Division Education Awards Day was held at Mahiga Girls' High school.

But, when Prof Kiyiapi sought to know how many students wanted to become engineers and doctors, many hands shot up. And many others were raised when he asked how many wanted to join the medical field and the security forces. A great number of students and pupils said they would like to be university lecturers.

"Who is going to teach our next generation?" asked the almost frustrated PS and turned to the teachers. "It just shows the kind of role models you are," he told them. Prof Kiyiapi said he was a university lecturer and it was all not rosy. "Be careful before you go there. I was once a lecturer and they are very miserable people."

So why doesn't any student want to become a teacher? "The problem is with our money culture," says a headmistress of one secondary school in Othaya. "The students look at us and see grossly underpaid civil servants. They think we are unable to meet even our basic needs."

The school head says that it is even harder to persuade students that teachers earn a better pay than policemen. According to her, the "money culture" still puts the law enforcers on a better footing than teachers "because some policemen are well known for kitu kidogo, thus they end up taking home more money than an ordinary teacher".

Mr Kamau Mwaura, a teacher at Karuri High School in Kiambu, could not agree more. He says teachers are expected to mould the youth and still be paid little. Murang'a-based career guidance counsellor Monicah Njeri said teachers should not take a beating for parents' faults.

She is not surprised that no school leaver wants to teach and no university student wants to become even a lecturer -- not even those taking Bachelor of Education courses. "We need to correct our national perception and attitude towards teachers, if we want to have quality teachers for our next generation," Ms Njeri says.

Kenya has a shortage of 66,000 teachers. But, some believe the government deliberately watered down the profession by opening it up to those who scored poorly in their KCSE exam. A former training college lecturer recently told the Daily Nation that those low standards only led to bright students shunning the profession.

Even after raising the bar to Grade C Plain, teaching still remains the preserve of those without an option, many secondary school teachers maintain.