- TSC has announced a new career progression framework, effective July 2027, allowing classroom teachers to rise to chief principal grade without taking administrative roles.
- Commissioner Timon Oyucho has confirmed that classroom and administrative teachers at the same grade will earn equal basic salaries and retirement packages, differing only by an administrative allowance.
- The Commission has recognised 55 teachers during Nyanza’s World Teachers’ Day celebrations, selected through a sub-county-to-regional process rather than central selection.
Classroom teachers will soon be able to rise through the teaching grades to the level of chief principal without taking up administrative positions, under a new career progression framework by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
The new framework, which takes effect in July 2027, is set to overhaul the existing career structure and separate the career paths of classroom teachers from those seeking administrative positions.
TSC Commissioner Timon Oyucho said the changes will allow teachers to choose whether to pursue management positions or remain in the classroom while progressing to the highest grades. Speaking at Kit-Mikayi in Seme Constituency during the Nyanza regional World Teachers’ Day celebrations on Thursday, Oyucho said the new guidelines would replace the 2018 career progression framework.
“We shall have a classroom teacher having the grade of the chief principal in the same school with a chief principal,” Oyucho said. He said a chief principal serving as a classroom teacher and one heading an institution would earn the same basic salary, with the only difference being an administrative allowance for those holding management positions. “The two teachers shall retire at the same level in terms of salary and therefore shall carry home the same retirement package,” he said.
The move is expected to address a long-standing concern among teachers who have had to leave classroom teaching and pursue administration to access higher grades and better remuneration.
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Oyucho said the commission would henceforth advertise administrative and classroom teaching vacancies separately, giving teachers greater choice over their career progression. “You have the leeway to choose to become administrators and compete for the number of vacancies in administration. You’ll also have a leeway to choose to remain a classroom teacher and be promoted the entire distance without involving yourself with administration,” he said.
The commissioner also announced a major redesignation of heads of institutions, saying all heads will be redesignated as principals from July 1, 2027, coinciding with the start of the next financial year. “All our principals shall start from teacher grade three, all of them across the country,” Oyucho said, adding that primary school heads would also be known as principals under the new structure.
The reforms are expected to create two parallel career tracks, allowing teachers who are committed to classroom instruction to progress without being compelled to seek leadership positions.
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Oyucho also said the commission was increasingly focusing on identifying and rewarding talent among teachers. During the Nyanza celebrations, 55 teachers were recognised for their performance and contribution to the teaching profession. “We are interested in identifying the potential in every teacher and promoting that teacher all the way,” he said.
He said the selection process had been conducted from the sub-county to regional level, with the commission seeking to move away from previous practices in which awardees were selected centrally.
The new framework is therefore set to give classroom teachers a direct route to the highest career grades while maintaining administration as a separate career option.
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