TSC To Promote 36,000 Teachers Next Week, Sets New Requirements

The Teachers Service Commission, TSC, is set to promote Over 36,000 teachers starting next week in a race to boost education in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) according to TSC CEO Nancy Macharia. The Commission is also set to employ an additional 450 new secondary school teachers.

The move comes as part of a plan to tackle intracultural strains such as overcrowding and High school fees in private schools. Nancy Macharia told lawmakers that out of the 36,829 teachers targeted for promotion, 10,833 from primary schools will be promoted to work in Junior Secondary Schools.

Promotions will be affected from February 20^th, 2023 since the identified candidates have met the requisite qualifications for deployment.

While appearing before the National Assembly’s Education Committee, Macharia told MPs that TSC was currently mapping the teachers after they applied for promotion through its online platform

“The mapping process of primary school teachers eligible to teach in junior secondary schools is a continuous process and verification of the mapped files is still ongoing to identify more teachers eligible to be posted to JSS,” she told legislators.

The qualification for deployment to JSS includes a Diploma in Education, a Bachelor’s degree in Education, at least a C +plus mean grade in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KSCE) examination or its equivalent, and at least a C Plus in the two teaching subjects at KCSE or its equivalent.

At university, one must have studied at least eight units in each of the two teaching subjects. The deployment of the teachers will be over and above the 30,550 primary teachers who were distributed to JSS for Grade 7 earlier this year.

During that phase, the commission allocated one teacher per class for all the Grade Seven classes in public schools countrywide

According to Macharia, While the teacher establishment for the Grade 7 level is 61,000 (at least two teachers per class), the commission had recruited 30,550 teachers (one teacher per class), bringing the teacher shortage at Grade Seven to 30,550.

On the hiring of the 450 secondary school teachers, Macharia announced that this will commence immediately after the close of the ongoing recruitment drive. The vacancies arose after TSC recruited 35,550 teachers out of the 36,000 slots that they had been allocated.

Of these, 9,000 posts were on permanent and pensionable terms of service for JSS, 1,000 posts were on permanent and pensionable terms of service for primary school teachers, 21,550 posts were for teacher interns in JSS, and 4,000 posts were for teacher interns in primary schools.

As of June 2022, the TSC was faced with a teacher shortage of 116,000 (48,327 at the primary level and 67,673 in post-primary instructions countrywide,” said Macharia. The promotion of the remaining 25,996 teachers for the financial year 2022/2023, will be subject to budgetary allocation.

Out of the 25,996 teachers, 11,258 will be promoted in the Common Cadre promotions, which benefit teachers in Job Group J (C1), K (C2), and L (C3). A promotion from Job Group J to K and K to L is done after three years of satisfactory performance.

A total of 13,717 teachers will be promoted through competitive promotion where a teacher will be required to make an application online, complete the Teacher Proficiency Course, or a promotion interview administered by the commission for that purpose.

Another 1,021 teachers will be promoted through affirmative action in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) and hard-to-staff areas. The commission allocates an additional five percent of teaching posts declared in the country to such areas.

Local teachers are recruited and retained in these areas to ensure optimal staffing levels and stability. Macharia said that to competitively promote 12,634 teachers in the current financial year, the commission requires at least Sh2.17 billion.

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