Government and Policy

TSC Releases List of 23,388 Promoted Teachers Following Interviews

BY Getrude Mathayo · June 3, 2025 05:06 am

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has finalized the process of promoting thousands of teachers following interviews that were conducted earlier this year.

In a significant development for the education sector, the Commission has released a new list of promoted teachers and begun issuing promotion letters to counties for deployment to respective schools.

The Interviews, which took place in January and February 2025, were part of a nationwide effort to fill long-standing vacancies and reward deserving teachers who met the requirements under the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG). According to TSC, a total of 23,388 teachers have successfully been promoted in this latest exercise.

The Commission has started dispatching the first batch of official promotion letters to county offices, paving the way for the immediate deployment of the promoted teachers to schools with available vacancies.

TSC has announced that the full list of the promoted teachers will be published and made available to the public this week via the Commission’s official website. This move is expected to enhance transparency and accountability in the teacher promotion process.

Deployment of the promoted teachers will be coordinated by TSC County and Sub-County Directors, who have been tasked with identifying and matching the promoted educators to suitable positions within schools experiencing teacher shortages.

This development follows a green light from the National Assembly Committee on Education, chaired by Tinderet Member of Parliament Julius Melly. The Committee had earlier reviewed and approved the Commission’s promotion plans, though not without controversy. Initially, TSC had sought to promote 25,252 teachers, but due to budgetary constraints and compliance issues, only 23,388 were ultimately cleared for promotion.

The Committee’s clearance came after the National Assembly allocated Sh1 billion to fund teacher promotions. However, this allocation only covered the promotion of 5,690 teachers, far below the total number TSC intended to promote. This financial limitation forced the Commission to make difficult decisions about which applicants met the most urgent criteria under the current policies.

During the review process, Members of Parliament expressed concerns over how some of the promotions were handled. They questioned the fairness and transparency of the exercise, highlighting that 5,291 teachers were promoted without having served the mandatory minimum of three years in their current grade, as required by the CPG.

MPs raised a series of allegations against the TSC, accusing it of running a biased and discriminatory promotion process. Among the grievances were reports that some teachers were promoted despite not meeting the minimum service period, while others who had served longer were overlooked.

Concerns were also raised over regional imbalances, where certain counties appeared to receive more promotion slots than others, sparking questions over equity in the distribution process.

In response to these criticisms, the Commission conducted a review of the initial promotion list, which had been released in April. In a status report presented to the Education Committee on 27^th May 2025, TSC confirmed that it had removed 1,864 teachers from the list after discovering they did not meet the three-year minimum requirement under the CPG.

TSC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Nancy Macharia explained the rationale behind the removals, emphasizing the Commission’s commitment to upholding standards and responding to Parliamentary oversight.

“In compliance with the Committee’s 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,” Dr. Macharia stated.

She further noted that the vacancies left by the removed teachers had been redistributed proportionally across the country, ensuring fairness based on the number of applicants interviewed in each region.

“The vacancies created from the above have been redistributed proportionally across the country based on the number of interviewed applicants,” she added.

In a move aimed at preventing future disputes and ensuring a standardized, transparent promotion process, TSC is now in the process of developing new promotion guidelines. These updated frameworks will provide clear and consistent criteria, outlining the procedures and qualifications required for teachers seeking upward mobility within the service.

The latest round of promotions represents a critical step toward improving morale among educators, addressing staff shortages in schools, and promoting equity in professional advancement. However, it also underscores the need for tighter oversight, more robust criteria, and equitable distribution of resources to ensure the process benefits all qualified teachers across the country.

As TSC continues with its deployment plans, the education sector watches closely to see whether the new measures will yield a more transparent and equitable promotion system for the future.