The fate of 25,252 teachers whose promotions were recently vetoed by Parliament is to be determined on Tuesday when the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) meets the National Assembly’s Education committee.
The teachers have not benefitted from their promotion since the TSC published of the successful candidates on April 2, 2025 after protests by education stakeholders, and the committee rejecting it, citing unfairness. The committee has now called the commission to explain the promotions criteria and the results.
During their previous meeting on April 14 2025, members of the committee accused the TSC of using an opaque promotion criteria and failing to uphold principles of equity. They argued that the promotions disproportionately favoured certain regions and left out deserving candidates in other areas.
Afterwards, the MPs made various recommendations for the commission to implement before effecting the promotions. The affected teachers are yet to receive enhanced salaries based on the promotions. On Tuesday, all the commissioners and the CEO of the TSC Nancy Macharia are expected to appear before the committee and make presentations on the implementation status of the resolutions.
The resolutions by the MPs might see some teachers struck out of the promotions list while others who were left out might be included. Among the recommendations the MPs want effected is a review of any promotions awarded within six months of a prior promotion.
They also recommended that the TSC gives priority consideration for promotion to teachers who have served for more than seven years in the same job group and are within three years of retirement.
The Education Committee that is chaired by Julius Melly (MP Tinderet) also recommended that teachers promoted in a preceding year shall not be promoted in the subsequent year. This means that teachers who may have been promoted last year and again this year will have their promotion reviewed.
The TSC is also expected to submit to the committee how it has employed a proportional distribution of the promotions in all regions to ensure equity.
The matter came up after protests by the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) which argued that the commission employed an equal allocation of slots and disregarded the population size and staffing disparities in some regions.
Ms Macharia has in the past maintained that the promotions were conducted fairly and transparently. Speaking during the Kenya National Schools Principals Forum in Mombasa late last month, she said she hopes the matter will be amicably resolved to enable deserving teachers to start enjoying their new positions.
“Even before we could announce the results of the interviews, your own Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association and trade unions were up in arms protesting the criteria of the promotions,” said Ms Macharia.
“Year-after-year, many of you have raked in merited promotions and risen to the apex of the principal stature, all because the majority of you take your work seriously,” said the TSC boss.
When the TSC appeared before the Committee on Education on April 14 2025, it presented data that indicated that Machakos County had the highest number of teachers promoted (690) while Garissa County had the least (303) number moving up the ladder.
Nation learnt from a member of the committee that after the meeting, the top leadership of the committee and the TSC held an informal session where Ms Macharia was asked on why she ‘misadvised’ the commission.
However, the CEO maintained that her advice on the promotions was ignored by the TSC board, leading to the current impasse. An analysis of the data presented at the time shows the positions were shared with slight variances across the counties irrespective of the size or number of applicants in each county.
The promotions span nine different grades, from C2 to D5. The largest number of promotions is within grades C4 and C5, which saw 8,508 and 5,425 teachers promoted respectively.
This was followed by 4,971 to grade C3, 2,519 to D1, 1,445 to C2, and 1,410 to D3. The higher executive levels, though fewer in number, saw 799 teachers promoted to D2, 128 to D4, and 47 to D5.
