- Crispinus Edambo questions which guidelines TSC will apply in the forthcoming teacher promotion exercise.
- He says teachers need clarity following the expiry of the 2025/2026 promotion guidelines on June 30.
- He also challenges unions to explain the implementation status of the newly agreed Career Progression Guidelines.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) owes teachers a clear and honest explanation: On what legal and policy basis does it intend to conduct the upcoming promotions following the expiry of the Guidelines for Promotion of Teachers for the 2025/2026 Financial Year in June?
This is no longer a minor administrative question. It is a matter that goes to the heart of fairness, legality, transparency and respect for teachers’ professional rights.
The 2025/2026 promotion guidelines expired on June 30. Yet teachers are now faced with uncertainty over the framework that will determine their career progression in the forthcoming promotion exercise.
That cannot be allowed to pass without scrutiny.
What makes the situation even more difficult to comprehend is that TSC has already developed revised Career Progression Guidelines in consultation with teacher unions, and an agreement on the new framework was signed by the parties in June.
So, what exactly is holding up its full implementation?
Why has TSC not clearly explained which guidelines will govern the forthcoming promotions?
Teachers deserve an answer.
If the revised CPG has been negotiated and agreed upon, then the Commission should explain its implementation status. If there are outstanding issues preventing full implementation, TSC should tell the teaching fraternity what those issues are.
What TSC cannot do is keep teachers guessing about the framework that will determine their career progression.
Teachers need clarity
The response from teacher unions also deserves scrutiny.
These unions participated in the negotiations that produced the revised CPG. They also know that thousands of their members are eagerly waiting for promotions that could affect their careers and earnings.
So, where are the demands for a clear explanation?
Where is the pressure on TSC to clarify which framework will govern the promotion exercise?
Teachers cannot be expected to fight this battle alone while the very unions entrusted with defending their interests remain unclear about the implementation of the new guidelines.
A union cannot celebrate its role in negotiating a new agreement and then fail to demand clarity when questions arise over implementation. If teachers are expected to participate in a promotion exercise whose governing framework remains unclear, then the unions must explain what they know and what they are doing to protect their members’ interests.
This raises important questions about accountability.
Teachers have invested years in classrooms, schools and communities. Promotion is not a favour bestowed upon them by TSC or anyone else. It is an important component of their professional career progression and has direct implications for their remuneration, status and future opportunities.
They therefore deserve a system governed by clear, current and valid rules.
What framework will govern promotions?
The Commission must not hide behind administrative convenience. Following the expiry of the 2025/2026 promotion guidelines, the framework governing the new exercise should be clearly and publicly explained.
The revised CPG should be implemented without unnecessary delay, or TSC should publicly explain its implementation status.
And the teacher unions must speak clearly on behalf of their members.
This is the time for answers, not silence.
TSC must tell teachers why the revised CPG has not been fully implemented, what framework will govern the forthcoming promotions, what guidelines will be used to assess candidates, what role the revised CPG will play in the exercise and when it will become fully operational.
These are legitimate questions, and teachers deserve straightforward answers.
The Commission and the unions should remember that teachers are not merely names on a payroll or numbers in promotion statistics. They are professionals whose careers and livelihoods are directly affected by these decisions.
There must be no uncertainty over the framework simply because an existing system is familiar or administratively convenient.
TSC must come clean. The unions must provide clarity. And teachers must demand accountability.
The upcoming promotion exercise must be anchored on a valid, current and legally defensible framework.
Teachers deserve better than uncertainty. They deserve transparency. They deserve fairness. Above all, they deserve a promotion system governed by rules that are valid and in force at the time those decisions are made.
The time for silence is over.
By Crispinus Edambo
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