- The TSC (Amendment) Bill, 2026 proposes to expand disciplinary offences to include cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, hosting learners, and supplying illicit drugs.
- TSC seeks enhanced powers to suspend and deregister teachers, including for fraud, forgery, and conviction for sexual offences against minors.
Teachers could face a wider range of disciplinary offences, including cyberbullying, sexual exploitation of learners and exposing pupils to illicit drugs, under proposed changes to the Teachers Service Commission Act.
The Teachers Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2026, seeks to strengthen the commission’s disciplinary powers while introducing new provisions aimed at protecting learners from abuse and exploitation.
Among the proposed offences is sexual exploitation of learners, alongside involving pupils in pornographic or sexually explicit material, sexual intercourse, sodomy, lesbianism, sexual harassment and flirtation.
The proposed law would also bar teachers from hosting learners in their homes, guest houses, hotels or other lodging facilities.
Teachers would further be prohibited from involving learners in household chores, while cyberbullying learners through social media would become a disciplinary offence.
The Bill also targets teachers who expose or supply learners with illicit drugs and psychotropic substances.
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Stronger Disciplinary Powers
TSC is seeking powers to suspend or deregister teachers found guilty of misconduct. An internal review committee would handle appeals against disciplinary decisions.
The proposed amendments also identify circumstances that could lead to deregistration from the teaching profession.
These include obtaining TSC registration through fraud, forgery or impersonation, as well as conviction for a sexual offence against a learner or minor.
Other proposed offences include theft of institutional property and submitting forged documents to the commission.
MPs Question Approach
The proposed changes were presented to the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Education in Naivasha, where MPs questioned the decision to amend the existing law instead of repealing and replacing the entire Act.
The legislators noted that the proposed amendments affect numerous sections of the TSC Act, raising questions about whether piecemeal changes would be sufficient to address emerging challenges in the teaching profession.
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TSC told the committee that the Bill had been prepared under the guidance of the Attorney-General as part of efforts to align the law with the Constitution and address changes in the education sector.
If enacted, the amendments would expand the statutory definition of teacher misconduct and give the commission a more detailed framework for dealing with professional and disciplinary cases.
By Kithinji Njeru
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