| dc.description.abstract | In Kenya before independence teachers were employed by different
missionary agencies to teach and help in spreading the word of God to the
"natives". Each missionary agency had its own terms and condition of
service. After independence TSC was established by an Act of Parliament
TSC Cap 212 (1967) to employ and manage all teachers in the country's
public schools. There was tremendous growth of pupil/student enrollment
hence teachers were being recruited after graduating from teachers
colleges. In 1998 the government banned employment of teachers due to
economic depression. This ban was lifted in the year 2000 but devolved to
various TSC agencies. In public secondary schools recruitment of teachers
was devolved to the BOGs whose performance was heavily accused of
malpractices.
The purpose of this study was to establish the effectiveness of BOG in
recruitment of teachers in public secondary schools in Taita- Taveta
District, Coast Province. The research was intended to find out whether
the outcry of malpractices in teacher recruitment country wide was true or
false, taking Taita- Taveta District as a representative. The major factors
considered in this research were the recruitment processes undertaken by
the teachers selection panels. The yard-stick of the performance was the
expected or ideal recruitment process.
The literature _review was divided into seven(7) sub-headings; personal
management which discussed the general procedure of advertising
vacancies in an organization and various ways of apply posts advertised.
Candidates should be shortlisted as very suitable candidates who should
be called for interview and those shortlisted as possible candidates are
called when the former disappoint the interviewing panel or they are inadequate while unsuitable candidates are politely rejected. It was
established that TSC Cap 212 of the Laws of Kenya empowers TSC to
delegate its functions to persons or institutions hence devolution of
recruitment of teachers to the BOGs in the recent past is within the law.
Decentralization or devolution was intended to make schools and local
communities manage their local educational resources. The primary aim of
decentralization was to contain teachers in schools with perennial shortage
of teachers. Selection guidelines of candidates was issued by TSC
headquarters outlining composition of selection panels. Few examples of
malpractices as reported in print media were cited. Also discussed was
history of graft which stemmed from Confucian tradition where the
world's elite in civil service received bribe to supplement the low
government salary. From the literature review a conceptual framework was
designed which showed a flow chart of the recruitment process.
The study used ex-post facto research design. Five sets of questionnaires
were designed by the researcher and validated by a lecturer in the
Department of Educational Administration and Planning of the University
of Nairobi. The instruments reliability was found to be 0.89 for
head teachers questionnaire, for deputy headteachers was 0.84 and for
recruited teachers was 0.93 , while for subject head was 0.91 and BOG
member 0.87. The targeted population was 230 respondents. A table
developed by Krejcie and Morgan (1970) as cited in Mulusa (1988) p. 86
was used to determine the sample size. Then the sample consisted of 30
headteachers, 30 deputy headteacher, 59 recruited teachers , 46 subject
heads and 30 BOG members. The data obtained was analysed and
interpretted using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages). The study established that among the Selection Panel members who
participated in teacher recruitment in Taita-Taveta District, it was among
the BOG members who possessed low academic qualification. Most of the
candidates received their letters of invitation for interview when there
were less than five(5) days before the day of interview. This was a violation
of the 14 days requirement. The schools came up with their own suitable
subject combinations. Some Selection Panel members had vested interest
and wanted candidates of their choice being given undue advantage over
others. Results of this study indicated that candidates coming from within
the district were preferred to those coming from outside, the locals were
believed to be truthfully willing to stay in the schools for more than five
years. There was no case of bribery reported by the respondents.
In conclusion, the current recruitment process has inherent weaknesses
that need to be addressed urgendy inorder to win both applicants and
general public's confidence. It is therefore recommended that TSC should
take advantage of the modern information technology to set up a national
database of all qualified unemployed teachers together with their relevant
details. The TSC staffing division could use this information to recruit and
post the teachers in needy schools instead of the BOGs doing it. This
research recommends that headteachers apart from the teaching training
should also be in possession of atleast a Diploma in Human Resource
Management if they are to be effective in teacher management. | en |
