Kenya Introduces Biometric System to Weed Out Ghost Teachers

The Teachers Service Commission in Kenya has launched the biometric enrolment and validation of Teachers that will give real-time data of all teachers employed by the commission.

The database is intended to help the TSC to address staff shortages as well as lock out those with questionable integrity from administering national exams.

Data on teachers in special programmes and curriculum support officers in all zones will be taken as well as teacher interns and those on contract.

In November 2020, Kenyan media reported on how taxpayers  were losing billions of shillings every year funding the ‘education’ of more than half a million ghost learners as headteachers and corrupt education ministry officials inflated enrolment numbers used by the government to disburse funds for Free Primary Education programme.