26,000 teachers set for TSC promotions

• The number will include a total of 11,258 teachers on Common Cadre Promotions, another 13,717 teachers on competitive promotion and 1,021 teachers on affirmative action.

By Education News reporter

Teachers Service Commission (TSC) plans to promote a total of 11,258 teachers on the common cadre in the current 2022/2023 Financial Year (FY) which is ending June 30, 2023. This is in addition to several other cadres that are lined up for upgrade.

This is revealed in the response by the TSC Secretary and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Nancy Macharia to the Departmental Committee on Education. She had been required to file a report on the controversial teachers’ medical cover, recruitment, promotion and delocalization.

In the document seen by Education News, the total number will entail 5,436 primary school teachers who will be promoted from grade B5 (Primary Teacher II) to C1 (Primary Teacher II), a total of 614 teachers from grade C1 to C2, and 5,208 from C2 to C3.

“For the year 2022/2023, the commission, subject to budgetary provision, shall in line with Regulation 74 of (Code of Regulations for Teachers) CORT promote a total of 11,258 teachers in the common cadre promotions,” said Dr. Macharia in the report.

According to the data, Kakamega will have the highest number of promotions under this category with a total of 551 teachers, who will include 227 teachers from B5 to C1, 36 from C1 to C2, and 288 from C3 to C4.

Garissa County on the other hand will have the lowest number of 38 teachers, being 21 from B5 to C1, one from C1 to C2, and 16 from C2 to C3.

Accordingly, the commission plans to promote another 13,717 teachers on competitive promotion and 1,021 on affirmative action in arid and semi-arid land (ASAL) and ‘Hard to Staff’ areas in the FY.

On the other hand, the commission also revealed that it had identified a total of 7,282 serving primary school teachers with requisite qualifications to be deployed to Junior Secondary School (JSS).

More mapping to identify eligible primary school teachers to serve in JSS is ongoing to address the shortages, with the qualifications being possession of either a Diploma in Education or a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, at least a C+ mean grade in KCSE or its equivalent, at least a C+ in two teaching subjects, and at least 8 units in each of the two teaching subjects.

According to Dr. Macharia, the commission has been addressing teacher shortage in secondary schools by promoting and deploying primary school teachers since 2019.

TSC promoted a total of 4,006 teachers in the FY 2019/2020 and 16,032 in the  FY 2020/2021, while  in 2019/20 FY the commission promoted a total of 5,034 teachers and 94,176 in the 2020/2021 FY on common cadre.

On teachers who have acted for long without being confirmed, the commission stated that despite the requirements set out in the Policy on Appointment and Deployment of Institutional Administrators, teachers who have acted as institutional administrators have an added advantage during interviews as they are awarded marks on the number of years they have been acting.

The commission recruited 30,550 teachers recently and posted them to JSS but still faces a shortage of 30,550 given that Grade 7 requires 61,100 teachers.

9,000 of them will serve on permanent and pensionable terms while 21,550 will be on internship.

Projected Common Cadre promotions per county in 2022/2023 FY