The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) now wants the Teachers' Service Commission to immediately promote more than 130,000 teachers who have been stuck in the same job group for over a decade.
The lobby cites recent reforms in the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) as a precedent.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen last week announced sweeping changes to the police service’s promotion system, abolishing the requirement for declaration of vacancies and interviews for certain long-serving officers.
Under the reforms, police constables aged 50 and above will be promoted on merit without having to wait until they turn 53, while corporals, sergeants, and inspectors who have served over 15 or 10 years in one rank will also be elevated.
“Following the positive example set by the NPSC, Kuppet demands that the TSC must not be left behind. When you keep such a large workforce under a demotivation framework, it means you don’t care about what makes this nation,” said Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori.
While commending the police commission’s move as brave, the union noted that it contrasts sharply with the Teachgers'Service Commission (TSC)’s failure to address similar stagnation among teachers.
“The concrete decision taken by the NPSC to tackle stagnation of police officers is what has brought to light the TSC, whose lips have been servicing the topic over the years,” said Mr Misori.
The union has pledged to resend a list of the 130,000 teachers who have stagnated for over 10 years to the TSC for immediate promotion.
Many of them, it noted, were in the former Job Groups I and M—converted into Teacher Scales C3 and C5 respectively in 2016—yet have not been promoted since as far back as 2009 or 2011.
“The circus TSC has taken us through is claiming that the conversion of these grades amounted to promotions while in reality, it was merely a re-designation of teachers, not genuine career progression,” he said.
“Since the NPSC will be promoting its officers without interviews, the TSC should be ashamed that it is subjecting teachers to four or five interviews for the same grade,” said Mr Misori.
“We are not saying that teachers should not do job interviews, but there are certain grades where there is no justification for making someone serve over 10 years before moving up,” he added.
The union’s Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima said there should be complete harmony in promotions within the public service so that teachers, public officers and other workers are treated equally.
It is not the first time that promotion controversies have been a flashpoint between the teachers’ unions and the TSC. Both Kuppet and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) have previously levelled numerous allegations against the commission.
Kuppet’s latest demands come amid growing calls for equity in public sector employment policies, with unions insisting on a common career growth framework for all workers.
This also follows allegations that the TSC has yet to issue official promotion letters to hundreds of teachers, months after listing them among successful candidates.
Despite being named in the reviewed list of promoted tutors, many have yet to receive formal communication from the commission—a delay that has dampened morale and left many feeling ignored.
On May 29, after sustained pressure and a directive from Parliament, the TSC released a revised list of 23,000 promoted teachers, paving the way for higher job grades and enhanced salaries.
