- NGEC has found that men continue to occupy most leadership positions in public schools, despite women forming the majority of TSC teachers.
- Although women have accounted for 50.2 per cent of the teaching workforce, they have held only 27 per cent of headship roles, with disparities most pronounced in primary schools.
- The audit has provided evidence‑based recommendations that TSC and NGEC have said will guide future policies to strengthen equality and inclusion in the teaching profession.
Male teachers continue to hold the majority of leadership positions in Kenya’s public schools despite women accounting for slightly more than half of the teaching workforce, a new audit by the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) has shown.
The report, Teachers of Kenya: Status of Equality and Inclusion in the Teaching Workforce in Kenya, 2025, which was released in July 2026 following an audit conducted in June 2025, focused exclusively on teachers employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and examined appointments across 34,630 public learning institutions, including primary, junior, and secondary schools as well as teachers’ training colleges.
The audit covered 425,613 teachers, analysing distribution by gender, age, disability, and marginalisation. Its objective was to generate evidence‑based recommendations to improve equality and inclusion in the teaching workforce. According to the findings, women make up 50.2 per cent of teachers employed by TSC, while men account for 49.8 per cent.
Despite this near parity, men overwhelmingly dominate leadership roles. Out of 28,925 heads of public institutions, only 27 per cent are women, compared to 73 per cent men. The disparity is most pronounced in primary schools, where women constitute about 55 per cent of teachers but hold just 24.2 per cent of headship positions.
Female teachers make up a slight majority of classroom instructors employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in Kenya at 50.2%, but male teachers heavily dominate leadership positions, headships, and professional misconduct or deregistration cases
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The report further notes that while gender parity has been achieved among teachers in junior schools, administrative posts remain male‑dominated. In secondary schools, the top six administrative positions are still largely occupied by men, underscoring entrenched inequalities in leadership.
To conduct the audit, NGEC developed a data collection tool in collaboration with TSC to capture information on sex, age, disability status, and marginalisation. TSC populated the tool using official records from its Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database and the Teacher Information Management System, before the two institutions jointly validated and analysed the data.
TSC welcomed the findings, saying they would help shape future policy and strengthen inclusion within the profession.
NGEC chairperson Rehema Jaldesa added that the evidence‑based findings would also influence policy review in other state agencies and promote equality in work environments. “The findings herein will be of value not only to the TSC in strengthening inclusive hiring and promotion practices, but also to other state agencies, policymakers and stakeholders seeking to uphold Kenya’s national values of equity and equality,” she said.
By Masaki Enock
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