The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will commence the issuance of promotion letters to eligible educators this week. This encompasses those who successfully participated in the recent promotion interviews for post-primary school teachers. Unsuccessful candidates will likewise receive regret letters.
In the meantime, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has published a comprehensive list of promoted teachers, detailing the allocation of slots among counties.
Machakos County received the majority of promotions, with 690 teachers being elevated, whereas Garissa County had the smallest number of promotions at 303. The list exhibited a variety across job grades and the number of positions assigned to each county.
The contentious list of 25,252 teachers who were promoted on April 2 has ignited a debate, with lawmakers rejecting the presented list in the National Assembly, asserting that the promotion process was biased.
The commission indicated that the positions were distributed with slight variations across counties, regardless of the number of applicants.
The TSC disclosed data regarding the numbers for common cadre promotions and those promoted under affirmative action for the 202/25 financial year, wherein 5,291 tutors were promoted across 47 counties.
Within this category, the leading beneficiaries were Isiolo County, which received promotions for 282 teachers, followed by Lamu with 280 teachers and Mandera, which had 270 teachers promoted.
The counties with the least promotions included Kiambu with 46 teachers, Nairobi with 63, Murang’a with 63, and both Elgeyo Marakwet and Laikipia, which each received 64.
The commission executed promotions from grade C2 to D5, with the majority of promotions awarded to grade C4, totaling 8,508, followed by C5, which had 5,425. The remaining numbers were 4,971 (C3), 2,519 to D1, 1,445 to C2, and 1,410 to D3.
At the executive level, 799 teachers were promoted to D2, 128 to D4, and a total of 47 to D5.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia asserted that the promotions were conducted in accordance with the commission’s regulations, emphasizing that the process was regionally balanced.
The CEO, who appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Education, stated that the process strictly complied with Regulation 72 of the code of regulations for teachers, the career progression guidelines, and the policy governing the selection and appointment of institutional administrators.
Committee Chair MP Julius Melly maintained that promotions were executed in accordance with established rules and were not biased.
He remarked that some teachers had been promoted three times consecutively, while others had remained within the same job group for over a decade, pointing out that the distribution did not take population dynamics into consideration.
The lawmakers will conduct an investigation into what they referred to as the multiple promotions of newly employed teachers at the expense of others who had been shortlisted, interviewed, but had not received promotions for years.
The TSC was mandated to provide a comprehensive list by Thursday of this week, detailing the teachers who have served in specific job groups prior to promotion and the criteria utilized to promote the 25,252 teachers.
Moses Nthurima, Acting Deputy Secretary-General of the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), criticized the Commission for its imbalanced promotion process. He stated that the criteria disadvantaged numerous educators, especially in regions with high teacher demands.
Nthurima raised concerns regarding the promotion of teachers who have been in service for six months when the policy stipulates a requirement of three years; he stated that the TSC did not implement a matrix for promotion that encompasses years of service, performance, and academic qualifications.
The Union has communicated with the TSC, which has yet to respond to their requests; the union has now pointed out the absence of consultation by the teachers’ employer.