- Teachers have accused TSC of using interview score sheets that have favoured age over merit in recent promotions.
- Critics have argued that an age-driven promotion culture has undermined morale and discouraged ambitious, high-performing teachers.
- The Commission has been urged to publish clear, transparent promotion criteria centred on competence rather than seniority.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) must urgently rethink any promotion system that gives excessive weight to age or length of service at the expense of merit.
During its recent round of promotions, TSC has come under criticism from teachers who claim that interview score sheets give preference to age over other, more relevant factors.
A modern human-resource system cannot afford to send teachers the message that simply growing older in service is enough to qualify for promotion. Age is not competence. Years served are not automatically evidence of leadership. Seniority alone does not guarantee performance. Teacher promotion should be about what an individual has demonstrated and what they are capable of delivering at a higher level of responsibility.
Some teachers have spent many years in the profession and have accumulated valuable experience. They deserve recognition. But some younger teachers have distinguished themselves through exceptional classroom performance, professional development, innovation, leadership and commitment to learners. Such teachers should not be forced to wait simply because of an age-based hierarchy.
The danger of an age-driven promotion culture is that it can punish ambition and undermine morale. Why should a highly competent teacher invest in professional development, take initiative and demonstrate leadership if the system appears to reward waiting rather than achievement?
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TSC must also recognise that experience and age are not interchangeable concepts. A teacher can acquire extensive, relevant experience without necessarily being the oldest applicant. Conversely, a person can have many years in service without possessing the skills required for a particular leadership position.
A credible promotion system must therefore put competence at the centre. Qualifications, performance, relevant experience, leadership ability, professional development, integrity and suitability for the position should carry meaningful weight. Where experience is considered, it should be evaluated for its relevance and quality, not simply converted into an advantage because a teacher has reached a particular age or accumulated a certain number of years.
TSC also needs to confront the perception that promotion opportunities are opaque or predetermined. Teachers should not have to speculate about what will secure their advancement. The Commission should publish clear criteria, apply them consistently and provide a transparent mechanism through which teachers can understand how promotion decisions are reached.
The consequences of failing to do so are serious. A demoralised teaching workforce cannot deliver its best. When capable teachers feel overlooked, professional enthusiasm declines, innovation suffers and talented individuals may eventually stop striving for excellence.
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TSC should be rewarding performance, potential and professional excellence, not merely the passage of time. This is not an argument against experienced teachers. It is an argument against allowing age or seniority to become an unfair barrier to deserving teachers. The Commission has a responsibility to modernise its human-resource practices and restore confidence in the promotion system.
Kenyan teachers do not need a system that tells them to wait their turn simply because of their age. They need a system that tells them: perform, excel, qualify, and you will have a fair opportunity to rise. That is what merit-based promotion should mean.
TSC must choose excellence over entitlement, competence over chronology, and merit over age.
By Meshack Cheres
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