The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has demanded that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) immediately advertise vacancies for the promotion of 135,000 teachers who have stagnated in the same job groups for years.
In resolutions adopted during its first National Governing Council (NGC) meeting of the 2026–2031 term held on May 15, 2026, the union said the long-delayed promotions, as well as several other key pending issues in the sector, were the bone of contention that should be sorted urgently.
Kuppet also demanded assurances that the second phase of the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), due for implementation in July, will be effected on schedule to avoid a repeat of delays experienced in July last year.
“We are demanding that the TSC to immediately advertise vacancies for the promotion of 135,000 teachers who have stagnated in their job groups. We also want them to implement second phase of the 2025-2029 and should immediately truncate the third and fourth phases of the CBA to be implemented in July 2027,” said Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori.
Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Secretary-General Akelo Misori speaks to the media at the union’s headquarters in Nairobi on August 11, 2025.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
While appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee, the Teachers Service Commission's Acting Chief Executive Officer said the commission plans to promote more than 30,000 teachers before the end of the year.
The announcement follows a commitment by William Ruto to increase the number of teacher promotions from 25,000 to 50,000 in the 2026/2027 financial year. To support the exercise, the government doubled the budget for promotions from Sh1 billion to Sh2 billion.
The planned promotions build on a recent upward trend, with more than 100,000 teachers promoted over the last four years, including 36,504 in the 2023/2024 financial year and 25,252 in 2025.
In April 2026, the commission issued 3,460 promotion letters to teachers who had been promoted in January.
The resolutions were adopted following recent union elections that ushered in a new leadership team.
In addition, Kuppet wants TSC to release details of the new Career Progression Guidelines to provide clarity on how teachers will advance through the ranks.
“We want the Commission to immediately publicise the draft report of the new Career Progression Guidelines and begin the public participation process with a view to the meeting the deadline provided under CBA,” said Mr Misori
The teachers’ union is also pushing back against proposals to review hardship allowances, warning that any attempt to remove the benefit would significantly reduce the earnings of thousands of teachers working in remote and underserved areas.
“Do not even imagine that you can remove hardship allowance. The National Governing Council demands the maintenance of the current hardship allowances for teachers as provided under existing legal notices. The so-called report proposing to take away teachers’ hardship allowance should not be implemented until it is approved by Parliament and assented to by the President,” said Mr Misori.
The hardship allowance is a monthly payment made to teachers posted to arid, insecure and marginalised regions to compensate for the high cost and difficulty of living and working in those areas.
Depending on a teacher’s grade, the allowance ranges from about Sh6,600 for junior teachers to as much as Sh38, 100 for senior administrators, making it a substantial part of take-home pay for many educators.
The dispute stems from a government-backed review that seeks to reclassify hardship areas, with some regions potentially losing the designation on the grounds that infrastructure and social services have improved.
Teachers’ unions, including Kuppet, argue that conditions in many of the affected areas remain harsh and that withdrawing the allowance would unfairly punish teachers who continue to serve in difficult environments.
The benefit is estimated to cost the government nearly Sh26 billion annually, underscoring both its significance to teachers and the scale of the financial implications at the centre of the standoff.
The Social Health Authority building in Nairobi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Kuppet has also raised concerns over the teachers’ medical scheme, under the Social Health Authority (SHA), noting that many hospitals contracted to provide treatment are not offering services as agreed, forcing some teachers to seek care elsewhere despite regular deductions from their salaries.
“Some cover limits remain woefully low, including those for dental and optical services and maternity care. So many hospitals are also not serving teachers, due to low capitation assigned to the members or delayed remittance of capitation fees for services offered,” said Mr Misori.
The union is also demanding the clearance of long-standing promotion delays and the confirmation of 44,000 intern teachers, saying the continued uncertainty has affected morale among educators.
“The NGC demands the immediate confirmation of all 44,000 intern teachers in line with the judgment by the Court of Appeal which declared the TSC's internship contracts as unconstitutional, null and void,” said Misori.
The Supreme Court of Kenya, on April 30, 2026, issued a temporary stay halting a Court of Appeal decision that had declared the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) internship program unconstitutional.
This allows the TSC to continue employing over 44,000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers as interns, preventing an immediate, massive staffing crisis.
Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters in Upper Hill, Nairobi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
TSC recruited 24,000 junior school teachers on one-year internship contracts running from January 1 to December 31, 2026, and deployed them to schools across the country.
The commission also hired 9,159 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms to replace those who left the service in 2025 through natural attrition.
Of the replacement positions, 7,065 were allocated to primary schools, 12 to junior schools and 2,082 to secondary schools.
Kuppet further noted that unresolved staffing gaps in schools continue to strain teachers and undermine effective delivery of the curriculum.
According to Educators, understaffing has forced many educators to handle more lessons than is recommended, teach subjects outside their areas of specialisation, and manage overcrowded classrooms with far more students than one teacher can effectively support.
In some schools, a small number of teachers are required to serve large student populations while also taking on additional responsibilities such as class administration, supervision and co-curricular duties.
