Government and Policy

TSC In Trouble For Failing To Promote 100,000 Teachers

BY Getrude Mathayo · February 18, 2025 01:02 pm

The Teacher Service Commission, TSC in trouble after the Kenya National Union of Post-Primary Teachers (KUPPET) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) questioned them for promoting only a limited number of teachers, falling short of their expectations and prior agreements.

According to KNUT’s First National Vice Chairperson, Malel Lang’at, termed the promotion of 25,288 teachers as insufficient to address career stagnation and professional growth across the country. He was speaking at an event in Kericho

KUPPET’s Kericho Branch Executive, Mary Rotich, stated that the union had anticipated at least 130,000 promotions, emphasizing the need for more opportunities to support teachers’ career advancement.

“We have many teachers who have qualified for promotion but the Teachers Service Commission is still sitting on the same. Even the recent promotions where they claimed to have promoted the same,” Lang’at stated.

On 16^th February, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba responded following grievances from KUPPET and KNUT members over irregular promotions.

Ogamba avoided delving into the politics of the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC’s) alleged irregularities in the practice and maintained that clear parameters were being met regarding promotions.

He added that TSC was an independent one and was currently in the process of promoting new teachers as interviews were already complete for the same.

“Promotions depend on available spaces and on how you perform. They are done by TSC, and as you know, TSC is an independent body,” Ogamba clarified.

“We have just completed the interviews and they are now undertaking the exercise of analyzing to see who will be promoted.”

Following recent calls made on January 30, KUPPET officials took issue with the criteria used to allocate the promotion slots in the country. The union also faulted the Commission for distributing the slots unequally across all counties. As a result, the protestors demanded the Commission fill the available slots on a pro-rata basis.

“We want to see the commission allocate proportionately the slots of promotion which means the counties that have gotten the highest number of teachers must get the highest number of slots so that we act fairly in terms of spreading,” Moses Nthurima, KUPPET Secretary General revealed.

“For that, we are demanding that the Teachers Service Commission use pro-rata to ensure that teachers are treated equally,” he added.

KUPPET’s Secretary General Moses Nthurima stated that they want to see TSC allocate proportionately the slots of promotion which means the counties that have gotten the highest number of teachers must get the highest number of slots so that we act fairly in terms of spreading

“For that, we are demanding that the Teachers Service Commission use pro-rata to ensure that teachers are treated equally.”