Next Monday, promotion letters will begin to be sent to 23,388 teachers. This comes after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was given permission to promote this figure by the National Assembly Committee on Education, which was chaired by Tinderet Member of Parliament Julius Melly.
However, this falls short of the 25,252 instructors the Commission aimed to advance after conducting interviews in January and February.
After it was revealed that 5,291 teachers had been wrongfully promoted because they had not completed the required minimum of three years as required by the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG), the MPs brought up serious concerns.
The legislatures heaped a myriad of accusations on TSC promotions terming them biased and discriminatory.
Among the accusations included promotion of teachers to next grade before completion of three years inline with CPG, discrimination where some junior teachers were promoted while others who served for longer periods left, some counties and regions getting more promotion slots than others.
In a status report addressed to the Education Committee on 27th May, TSC indicated that a total of 1,864 teachers were removed from the initial promotion list that was published early in April in compliance with the Committees resolution.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia said the teachers were dropped because they did not meet the minimum three year requirement inline with Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) for teachers.
“In compliance with the Committees recommendations, the balance of 1,864 teachers who were promoted but have not met the requisite three year requirement has been removed from the promotion list,” said Macharia.
“In compliance with the Committees resolutions, the vacancies created from the above have been redistributed proportionally across the country based on the number of interviewed applicants,” she added.
She however noted that in filling the vacancies priority was given to teachers who have served for seven years in one grade and have three years to retire from service.
S/NO COUNTY NUMBER INTERVIEWED TOTAL PROMOTED
1 MACHAKOS 5547 762
2 MERU 5717 751
3 KAKAMEGA 6986 748
4 MAKUENI 5692 742
5 NAKURU 5892 741
6 KIAMBU 5401 719
7 KITUI 6529 715
8 MURANG’A 4350 704
9 KISII 6029 703
10 BARINGO 3005 682
11 EMBU 2771 682
12 KISUMU 4497 678
13 BUNGOMA 6179 655
14 NAIROBI 2184 649
15 UASIN GISHU 2947 627
16 NYERI 2909 617
17 KERICHO 3474 615
18 ELGEYO MARAKWET 2256 609
19 HOMABAY 4547 607
20 SIAYA 3467 595
21 KILIFI 3421 592
22 NYAMIRA 2772 591
23 NANDI 3497 572
24 VIHIGA 2607 572
25 MIGORI 3969 563
26 TRANS NZOIA 3015 561
3015 561
27 KIRINYAGA 1984 556
28 LAIKIPIA 1928 555
29 THARAKA NITHI 2572 553
30 KAJIADO 2170 549
31 BOMET 3247 545
32 WEST POKOT 2413 537
33 NAROK 3196 535
34 BUSIA 2908 534
35 NYANDARUA 1997 523
36 KWALE 2097 504
37 MOMBASA 1197 419
38 TAITA TAVETA 981 347
39 TURKANA 1180 338
40 SAMBURU 993 248
41 MARSABIT 948 246
42 TANA RIVER 938 235
43 ISIOLO 902 233
44 WAJIR 579 214
45 MANDERA 791 197
46 LAMU 750 194
47 GARISSA 418 139
Grand Total 143,849 25,252
The commission said 5,291 teachers were promoted despite not meeting the three-year threshold.
Most of them took up principal and deputy headteacher roles, where the number of eligible candidates fell short of demand.
“In the just concluded promotion exercise, the number of teachers who had met the three-year requirement in the feeder grades fell significantly short of the number of vacancies,” said the commission in a statement dated May 22.
The move comes after the National Assembly allocated Sh1 billion to support promotions, which covered only 5,690 of the 25,252 vacancies.
According to the commission, a total of 1,410 teachers were promoted to principal roles under Grade D3, while 3,686 were appointed as deputy headteachers under Grade C4.
The commission said only 598 teachers had served long enough to qualify for the 1,410 principal vacancies, while 7,460 qualified for the 3,686 deputy headteacher posts.
To address the shortfall, the commission temporarily lowered the requirement to six months of service in one grade.
TSC explained that the waiver aimed to attract more applicants and address a long-standing issue of teachers working in acting positions.
“This policy decision helped ensure that the vacancies were competitively filled, especially in arid and semi-arid regions where recruitment and retention have been difficult,” said the commission.
Out of the 5,291 teachers promoted without the three-year service, 3,427 were placed in the key administrative grades of principal and deputy headteacher.
The commission requested that all teachers promoted under the temporary measure be retained, stating that the waiver had been essential to filling critical staffing gaps.
Looking ahead, the commission said it would develop and publicise standardised promotion guidelines, following public participation with teachers, unions and other stakeholders.
The new framework will also comply with constitutional principles including equity, inclusiveness and non-discrimination.
“The commission remains committed to ensuring fair and accountable processes in future promotions,” said the statement.
However despite its defense only promotion of 23,388 teachers have been upheld by the Education Committee.