Nairobi — The Teachers Service Commission is set to conduct interviews to fill 36,505 vacancies for teacher promotions from December 4.

According to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nancy Macharia, 17,914 posts will to go to primary school staff.

In an address to delegates during the 20th Annual Delegates Conference currently underway in Mombasa, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia outlined that the government has set aside sh 1 billion in the financial year 2023/202.

She lamented over the failure of teachers to turn out for the interviews, a factor she observes has starved schools with low numbers of teachers, putting pressure on the teachers already employed by TSC.

"I wish to inform you that, in the past, the Commission has failed to attract enough applicants for promotional positions even after lowering the requirements. This is more prevalent in Special Needs Education where we are having a serious shortage. I wish to encourage those who have been invited for the interviews from 4th December 2023 to ensure that they attend without failure. Please encourage your teachers not to shy off from taking up responsibilities," she stated.

Macharia outlined regions that have faced shortage of teachers who have failed to turn up for interviews including North Eastern, leading with 795, followed by Coast region at 177, Eastern 72, Rift Valley 45 and Central with 34 teachers yet to fill those positions.

Macharia called on the teachers to cease shying away from the process adding that the commission has employed digitization that has promoted accountability and fairness.

"Recruitment for instance, our online recruitment module, has replaced the manual process which required teachers to travel to deliver their job applications to either County offices or secondary schools to drop applications," she added.