The advertisement of 19,943 senior administrative positions in educational institutions by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) exposes an administrative crisis as well as a succession challenge.
The positions exist in established schools that are currently led by teachers in acting capacities or the school heads are about to retire.
Previously, the commission has been forced to re-advertise for senior positions after failing to attract suitable candidates, an issue that has been raised by teachers’ unions over the years. The TSC has encouraged teachers who applied for promotion in November 2024 to apply.
In the advert that seeks to fill in the vacancies in 2025, secondary schools need 822 principals at various job grades. There are 44 positions for chief principals. Teachers in this group are usually in charge of national schools and are the highest title in the teaching profession.
The advertisement of 19,943 senior administrative positions in educational institutions by the Teachers Service Commission.
Photo credit: Nation Media Group
Secondary schools also need 126 senior principals. However, it is in the position of principal of regular secondary schools where there are 652 vacancies. These are mainly sub-county (day) schools which are attended by the majority of learners and which are the least equipped, as they wholly depend on government funding.
According to the advertisement, secondary schools require 2,194 deputy principals. This is a significant number considering that there are about 10,000 public secondary schools.
The secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Akello Misori welcomed the move to fill the positions, saying it has been at the core of their quest for regular promotion of teachers.
“This is a welcome move especially for those who have been acting yet are qualified to be substantively appointed to the positions. The TSC is progressing in the right direction to address the problem and is part of the return-to-work formula we signed,” he told Nation, referring to the deal the parties signed following a nationwide strike called by Kuppet in August 2024.
At the time, Kuppet was calling for the promotion of 130,000 teachers. In signing the deal, the parties agreed that the matter depended on budgetary allocation by the National Assembly.
“The vacancies are massive but you must start from somewhere. TSC is the only institution that doesn’t pay acting allowance,” Mr Misori added. He, however, did not give the number of vacancies in schools.
Primary schools have the biggest number of vacancies for senior administrators with 254 senior headteachers needed in regular schools and 2,130 headteachers. 33 special needs education schools also require headteachers.
As is the case in secondary schools, vacancies for deputy headteachers (I) are more (3,653) and the number needed for Senior Teacher I (Regular Primary School) rises even higher (4,703).
Johnson Nzioka, the chair of the Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association said that promotion opportunities should be opened up for headteachers owing to their added responsibility of managing junior schools.
“I don’t have the data but there are many headteachers who’ve stagnated at Job Group C5 and others have been in D1 because that’s the ceiling. It’s very unfair when they see other people being promoted. TSC should lift the ceiling because these are now principals. If it’s about papers, let those with degrees be promoted,” he told Nation.
Teachers are promoted following the career progression guidelines that were introduced in 2018 to take over the function from the Teachers Schemes of Service and the Code of Regulations for Teachers.
Meanwhile, the TSC blames inadequate budgetary allocation for the promotion of teachers. Whereas it had requested Sh2.2 billion, the National Assembly allocated one billion shillings, implying that half of the teachers qualified for promotion will not be promoted.
Over the years, the commission has not been allocated money for promotion and has only been doing so to replace positions left vacant through natural attrition.
