At least 314,117 teachers applied for Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) slots against the 46,000 available spaces.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia said the commission is in the process of receiving forms from the targeted group. She said intern teachers have been given priority in the ongoing listing.
Of the 314,117, at least 93,646 sought to be listed in primary schools, 144, 177 for junior schools, and 76,294 for secondary schools.
This is against a requirement for 6,000 teachers for primary schools, 39,950 for junior schools, and 450 for secondary schools.
Macharia was appearing before the National Assembly education committee.
"Following the closure of the application window, the commission vetted the applications and issued the interns with employment forms," Macharia said.
"Currently, the commission is in the process of receiving employment forms and offer of employment letters from its county offices. The teachers will report to schools by January 2025," she stated.
Macharia assured the concerned teachers that they will be given priority in the recruitment, insisting they will not be automatically elevated to permanent and pensionable terms.
"All employment vacancies are filled competitively in line with the principle of fair competition and merit," she said.
"The recruitment is aimed at converting teacher interns to permanent and pensionable terms. Accordingly, all serving intern teachers will be employed on permanent and pensionable terms of service."
The persistent shortage of teachers at all levels has been a longstanding issue that the government has struggled to address.
During his 2022 presidential campaign, President William Ruto promised to hire 116,000 teachers within two years.
kuppet Secretary-General Akello Misori had commended the government's decision to hire 46,000 teachers on permanent terms, calling it the largest recruitment effort in the nation's history.
The newly hired teachers are expected to report to their schools on January 2, 2025.
In July, the recurrent budget of the Teachers Service Commission had been reduced by Sh10.28 billion, documents presented to a committee of Parliament show.
TSC in its presentation of the 2024/25 Financial Year Supplementary Estimates I to the Departmental Committee on Education noted that the new gross recurrent budget is Sh347.49 billion down from the initial allocation of Sh357.77 billion.
The commission further said there is a reduction of the development budget by Sh38 million wholly on government-funded projects.
The new development budget is Sh404.32 million down from the initial Sh442.32 million, TSC noted.