Uproar as TSC promotes 25,000 teachers
Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Njeri Macharia on October 23, 2024.
The Teachers Service Commission on Wednesday released a list of 25,252 teachers who have been promoted, a day before the commission is due to appear before Parliament to answer questions on teacher promotions.
The National Assembly's Committee on Education has invited TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia to appear before it on April 3 to discuss matters relating to teacher promotions.
The release of the results of the interviews comes just two weeks after the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) protested against a criteria for promotions, calling it unfair to some teachers and asking the TSC to shelve it.
The principals petitioned the commission and the National Assembly, arguing that a quota system used by the TSC to promote teachers discriminated against regions with more qualified teachers.
The 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.
The list includes 5,690 who applied for the promotions advertised by the commission in November 2024 and 19,943 who applied for the vacancies advertised in December.
This means that 381 vacancies were not filled.
The National Treasury allocated Sh1 billion to the commission to carry out the promotions, although it had requested Sh2 billion.
As soon as the list was published on the TSC website, the acting secretary-general of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), Moses Nthurima, demanded that the TSC withdraw it, citing an unfair distribution of opportunities across counties.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima on February 6, 2025 in Nairobi.
The union argues that the allocation process failed to take into account disparities in teacher population, which disadvantaged those in densely populated areas.
Teacher promotion was one of the grievances raised by Kuppet when it called for a national teachers' strike in August 2024.
Read: TSC receives 189,000 applications for teacher promotions, eight times more than advertised vacancies
According to a letter from the Clerk of the National Assembly, Jeremiah Ndombi, to Ms Macharia dated March 28, 2025, the issues listed for deliberation include: the TSC's long-term strategy for ensuring a transparent, merit-based and equitable teacher promotion system; equity and regional balance in promotions; affirmative action; and financial sustainability.
The TSC is expected to provide a detailed report on teachers promoted in the last three years, including the categories of their promotions and their regions. Compliance with legal frameworks and agreements with teachers' unions is also on the agenda.
“What measurable impact has the delay in promotions had on teacher morale, retention and overall education quality?” the letter reads.
Reacting to the publication of the list, Kuppet officials claimed that the allocation of posts for promotion did not take into account disparities in teacher population, disadvantaging teachers in populous areas and resulting in a skewed system that overlooks merit and workload distribution.
“Given the disparities in staffing levels across the country, such equal distribution is inherently flawed and places teachers in high-population areas at a disadvantage. There are some counties that have more than 11,000 teachers, and others have 1,000 teachers. So when you have distributed those slots equally, it means the populous counties will be less affected. Given the disparities in staffing levels across the country, such equal distribution is inherently flawed, and unsafe teachers working in the high-population areas,” said Mr Nthurima.
“We demand that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) withdraws the published list of promotions and revise it to ensure a more equitable process,” he added. He spoke at a press conference at the union headquarters in Nairobi.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) National Vice Chairman Julius Korir and Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima on March 25, 2025.
The union also accused the TSC of political interference in the promotion process, arguing that certain regions appear to have been favoured while others continue to experience stagnation due to high competition. They argue that the long-standing pro-rata policy in promotions has been unfairly applied and should be reconsidered.
“This indicates that politics has influenced the formation of the TSC. The commission is no longer independent, as it can be pressured into approving significant promotions, which are rare and highly coveted. The clear implication is that teachers in smaller counties, who receive preferential treatment, and their counterparts in more populous counties, are being overlooked due to intense competition among equally sized counties. The published promotion list appears to be manipulated, with promotions being redone multiple times to create the impression that the process is being carried out properly,” he said.
Mr Nthurima also raised concerns about the government's handling of the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), criticising its inadequate funding. According to the union, only a small percentage of national schools are well-equipped to handle STEM subjects, leaving students in county and sub-county schools at a disadvantage.
“We cannot support a system that neglects STEM education simply because most schools lack resources. The government must take education financing seriously if we want to achieve industrialisation by 2030,” he said.