Members of Parliament have rejected the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) list of 25,252 promoted teachers, calling it unfair, biased, scandalous and a fraud.
The National Assembly’s Education committee yesterday, in a tense meeting with TSC, demanded more documents that the commission considered while undertaking the promotions that the lawmakers said failed to adhere to the principle of equity.
The meeting saw TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia and Chairperson Jamleck Muturi come under fire from the lawmakers who said the recent promotions were skewed as some counties with less teachers got more promotions than other counties.
The committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly now wants TSC to provide it with the list of all the teachers who applied for promotion in each sub-county, marks scored by each teacher during the interviews and the number of teachers that have served for more than three years in each sub-county.
The committee also wants the list of teachers promoted three years ago as there are allegations that the same benefited again this year, leaving out some teachers who have served for more than a decade but haven’t been promoted.
Chairperson of the National Assembly Committee on Education Julius Kibiwot Melly during a meeting with the Commission on Higher Education at Continental House Nairobi on Tuesday June 11, 2024.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
“Equity is lacking in this entire document and we can’t proceed like this. You had a duty, we gave you money and what you have done is a disservice to this country and the teachers,” Mr Melly said. “We cannot allow this commission to promote a person every year, promote teachers of an entire county leaving out the rest of the country.”
Mr Melly said the commission is in possession of various reports from teachers across the country that some teachers who have only served for one year have been promoted yet those who have served for 20 years have not been promoted.
Luanda MP Dick Maungu termed the recent promotions an injustice to teachers and the teaching profession.
“Teachers who got promoted last year are the same ones that have been promoted again this year, yet TSC is being clever by coming here to tell us that those they promoted are the ones who have served in the same position for three years,” he said.
Baringo North MP Joseph Makilap rubbished the promotions, saying the principle of fairness and equity was not adhered to in the entire process.
“How was the principle of affirmative action applied in this promotion? We need to see the raw data from sub-county and county levels so that we see why people who scored 100 per cent during interviews were not promoted and those who scored 80 per cent got promotions,” Mr Makilap said.
Teso South MP Mary Emase asked why TSC rushed to release the promotion list before it was scrutinised by the committee to check adherence to equity and fairness.
“Kenyans need answers, we need equity. What Kenyans are telling us is that the longest-serving teachers were not promoted, those promoted were the recently employed ones,” Ms Emase said.
Igembe North MP Julius Taitumu termed the recent promotions the most scandalous ever in the teaching profession
“With all this uproar about these promotions, including from the unions, if TSC was to be given an opportunity to do it again, would they come back with the same results? If not, the entire process is a scam,” she said.
Prof Phylis Jepkemoi Bartoo (UDA) who has won the Moiben constituency parliamentary seat with 40,892 votes, defeating outgoing MP Silas Kipkoech Tiren who got 8,790 votes.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
However, Ms Macharia defended the promotions, saying the commission adhered to Article 56 of the constitution.
The promotion list has been rejected by the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education. According to the unions, the promotions failed to take into account the disparities in teacher population, which disadvantaged teachers from densely populated areas.
TSC advertised the vacancies at the end of last year and conducted interviews at the beginning of this year. The list was published on the TSC website. It includes 5,690 who applied for the promotions advertised by the commission in November last year and 19,943 who applied for the vacancies advertised in December.
TSC had requested Sh2 billion to cater for the promotions but the National Treasury only allocated it Sh1 billion.
