Teachers gathered at the headquarters of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) after widespread technical outages disrupted the application process for 46,000 advertised vacancies.
Frustrated by the system’s malfunction, applicants sought to escalate the matter after days of failed attempts to submit their applications online.
Thousands of teachers applying for TSC vacancies have encountered numerous technical errors while submitting their applications. The main problem reported was the delay in receiving the one-time password (OTP), an essential requirement to complete the application. Despite the urgency imposed by the one-week deadline, many candidates have to wait for long periods, leading some to speculate that the problems could be deliberate.
Initially, many candidates received an “internal server error” notification when they tried to access the portal. Despite repeated attempts, most failed to connect.
On October 2nd, just one day after applications began, teachers were increasingly anxious as the deadline approached. Some applicants expressed their frustration online, saying they had tried to register without success. One candidate said he had been trying to access the portal since the previous day but to no avail, while others asked TSC’s ICT department to resolve the issue before October 7.
Amid growing complaints, the TSC issued a statement to address the technical issues. The commission attributed the failures to a technical problem and assured applicants that its team was working to resolve the issue.
He apologized for the inconvenience and asked for your patience while he tried to quickly restore functionality to the portal.
Even with TSC assurances, applicants continued to face challenges as the deadline approached. The delay in receiving OTPs continued, with some applicants waiting days to receive them. This significantly hindered their progress in processing their application.
Several teachers echoed their frustration, saying they were unable to sleep because of repeated attempts to access the system.
This technical failure has added to the wider difficulties faced by teachers recently.
Current demand challenges follow previous challenges faced by teachers. The government had previously announced that the Treasury did not have enough funds to hire new teachers. However, Finance Minister John Mbadi later explained that the funds were available, but could only be accessed in January 2025.
Despite these initial funding difficulties, TSC announced the recruitment of 46,000 teachers, distributed as follows:
38,500 positions for Junior secondary schools
6000 places for primary schools
450 places for secondary schools. While this recruitment effort was intended to address the teacher shortage, technical issues related to the application process significantly disrupted the effort.
