The fate of 25,252 teachers whose promotions were recently blocked by Parliament will be decided on Tuesday when the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) meets with the National Assembly’s Education committee.
These teachers have not received their promotions since the TSC announced the successful candidates on April 2, 2025, following protests from education groups who claimed the process was unfair. The committee has asked the TSC to explain how the promotions were decided.
In a previous meeting on April 14, 2025, committee members accused the TSC of using unclear criteria for promotions and not being fair. They said the promotions favored certain regions and overlooked deserving candidates in others.
The MPs suggested changes that the TSC should make before moving forward with the promotions. The teachers affected have not yet received higher salaries based on their promotions. On Tuesday, all TSC commissioners and CEO Nancy Macharia are expected to present information on the status of the recommendations.
The MPs’ suggestions could lead to some teachers being removed from the promotions list while others who were not included might be added. They want the TSC to prioritize promotions for teachers who have worked for more than seven years in the same job group and are close to retirement. They also recommended that teachers promoted last year should not be promoted again this year.
The TSC is expected to show how it has fairly distributed promotions across different regions. This issue arose after protests from the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA), which argued that the TSC did not consider the population and staffing differences in various regions.
Ms. Macharia has previously stated that the promotions were done fairly. At a recent forum, she expressed hope that the issue would be resolved so deserving teachers could enjoy their new roles. She noted that the KESSHA and trade unions had protested the promotion criteria even before the results were announced.
When the TSC appeared before the Education Committee on April 14, they reported that Machakos County had the most promotions (690), while Garissa County had the fewest (303).
A committee member revealed that after the meeting, the committee leadership and the TSC had an informal discussion where Ms. Macharia was questioned about her advice to the commission. However, she insisted that her advice was ignored by the TSC board, leading to the current situation. An analysis of the data showed that promotions were distributed fairly across counties, regardless of the number of applicants.
The promotions cover nine grades, from C2 to D5. The most promotions were in grades C4 and C5, with 8,508 and 5,425 teachers promoted, respectively. Other grades saw 4,971 promoted to C3, 2,519 to D1, 1,445 to C2, and 1,410 to D3. Fewer teachers were promoted to the higher grades, with 799 to D2, 128 to D4, and 47 to D5.