Mvita MP Mohamed Machele has highlighted a growing trend of youth abandoning teaching in favour of more financially rewarding careers, leading to a teacher shortage.
He pointed out that schools are now forced to recruit teachers from outside the constituency, as many students opt for fields like Nursing, Medicine, and Business Administration, which are perceived to offer higher salaries.
Machele expressed concern over the lack of teachers from the local community, noting that these same community members later complained about the influx of teachers from other regions.
In response, he announced plans to offer full scholarships to Mvita students who choose to pursue a teaching career.
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Starting next year, the MP will set aside funds for a scholarship program to fully sponsor students who wish to take teaching courses. Upon completing their studies, Machele pledged to assist them in securing employment with the Teachers Service Commission and ensuring they are deployed to schools within Mvita.
The MP also expressed disappointment over President William Ruto’s recent allocation. Each MP was given 10 slots for junior secondary school teachers, but there were no local applicants to fill them.
Machele spoke during the distribution of Sh28 million bursaries to 6,300 secondary school students and highlighted changes in the Teachers Service Commission’s hiring criteria. Under the new rules, applicants must be from the same sub-county where they wish to teach.
Machele emphasized that teaching is not just a profession but a valuable way to give back to society and encouraged local students to pursue teaching to help address the growing shortage.
Mvita currently has 30 public primary schools and 16 public secondary schools, and the MP mentioned that some teachers employed by school boards but not yet absorbed by the government were filling the vacancies in junior secondary schools.
By Joseph Mambili
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