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TSC promotes 25,252 teachers amid outcry over process
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) CEO Dr Nancy Macharia addressing the 64th Kenya National Union (KNUT) Annual Conference in Mombasa on December 10, 2024.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has published a list of 25,252 teachers whose applications for various promotions have been successful.
This comes just a day before the commission appears before Parliament to answer questions regarding the promotions in the teaching force.
The Departmental Committee on Education of the National Assembly has invited the TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia to appear before it on Thursday (today) to discuss matters regarding teachers’ promotions.
The publishing of the results from the interviews comes just two weeks after the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association protested against a criteria for the promotions, terming it unfair to some teachers and asked the TSC to shelve it.
The school principals petitioned the commission as well as the National Assembly arguing that a quota system the TSC is using to promote teachers, disadvantages regions that have a higher number of qualified teachers.
The TSC advertised the vacancies late last year and conducted interviews early this year. The list has been published on the TSC website.
The promoted teachers include 5,690 who successfully applied for promotions advertised in November 2024 and 19,943 others it advertised in December.
This implies that 381 vacancies have not been filled. The commission had been allocated Sh1 billion for promotion of teachers although it had requested for Sh2 billion.
Immediately the list was published on the TSC website, the acting secretary-general Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Moses Nthurima demanded the TSC to withdraw it, citing unfair distribution of opportunities across counties.
The union argues that the allocation process failed to consider disparities in teacher populations, disadvantaging educators in highly populated areas.
Promotion of teachers was one of the grievances of Kuppet) when it called a nationwide teachers’ strike in August 2024.
According to a letter by the clerk of the National Assembly, Jeremiah Ndombi, to Ms Macharia dated March 28, 2025, the issues listed for deliberation include; TSC’s long-term strategy for ensuring a transparent, merit-based and equitable teacher promotion system, equity and regional balance in promotions, affirmative action as well as financial sustainability.
The TSC is expected to provide a detailed report on teachers promoted in the last three years including the categories of their promotions and their regions. Also on the agenda is compliance with legal frameworks and agreements with teachers’ unions.
“What measurable impact has the delay in promotions had on teacher morale, retention and overall education quality?” The letter reads.
Reacting to the publication of the list, Kuppet officials alleged that the allocation of vacancies for promotion failed to consider disparities in teacher populations, disadvantaging educators in highly populated areas, leading to a skewed system that overlooks merit and workload distribution.
“Given the disparities in staffing levels across the country, such equal distribution is inherently flawed and places teachers in high-population areas at a disadvantage. There are some counties that have more than 11,000 teachers, and others have 1,000 teachers. So, when you have distributed those slots equally, it means the populous counties will be less affected. Given the disparities in staffing levels across the country, such equal distribution is inherently flawed, and unsafe teachers working in the high-population areas,” said Kuppet acting secretary-general Moses Nthurima.
“We demand that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) withdraws the published list of promotions and revise it to ensure a more equitable process,” he added. He spoke during a press conference at the union headquarters in Nairobi.
The union also accused the TSC of political interference in the promotion process, arguing that certain regions appear to have been favoured while others continue to experience stagnation due to high competition. They argue that the long-standing pro-rata policy in promotions, has been unfairly applied and should be reconsidered.
“This indicates that politics has influenced the formation of the TSC. The commission is no longer independent, as it can be pressured into approving significant promotions, which are rare and highly coveted. The clear implication is that teachers in smaller counties who receive preferential treatment, and their counterparts in more populous counties, are being overlooked due to intense competition among equally sized counties. The published promotion list appears to be manipulated, with promotions being redone multiple times to create the impression that the process is being carried out properly,” he said.
Mr Nthurima also raised concerns about the government’s handling of the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), criticising its inadequate funding.
According to the union, only a small percentage of national schools are well-equipped to handle STEM subjects, leaving students in county and sub-county schools at a disadvantage.
“We cannot support a system that neglects STEM education simply because most schools lack resources. The government must take education financing seriously if we want to achieve industrialisation by 2030,” he said.
