The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced a delay in promoting 20,000 primary school headteachers to Junior Secondary School (JSS) principals, pending the establishment of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). This update was delivered by TSC’s Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, during the annual Kenya Primary School Headteachers Association (KEPSHA) conference held in Mombasa.
Macharia highlighted that the promotion process involves specific terms and conditions which must be incorporated into a formal CBA. “The next CBA cycle for 2025-2029 has yet to be drafted,” she noted, indicating that the promotional framework is contingent on this upcoming agreement. Without these formal terms in place, the TSC cannot proceed with the anticipated advancements in rank for these headteachers.
To manage expectations in the interim, Macharia encouraged school heads to collaborate with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) to ensure they fully understand the responsibilities associated with leading JSS institutions. She also called on Julius Melly, Chair of the National Assembly Committee on Education and Research, to advocate on behalf of these educators when the time comes for the TSC to approve their promotions.
This delay has disrupted the administration of junior secondary schools, which many primary headteachers have managed on an acting basis since the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). The deferred promotions have disappointed headteachers, who had expected their roles to be formalized this year; the earliest this could now happen is in 2025.
Macharia further addressed challenges in Special Needs Education (SNE), noting a shortage of applications for promotion despite ample qualified candidates and vacant positions. Additionally, she urged prompt submission of casualty forms for newly hired teachers to prevent payroll delays.
Amid these hurdles, TSC recently re-advertised 46,000 permanent teaching positions and extended the deadline to accommodate technical issues with applications. Furthermore, 20,000 teaching internships were announced for October 29, aimed at offering experience and potential paths to permanent roles. In a related development, President William Ruto recently committed to hiring 20,000 more teachers in January to help address Kenya’s teacher-learner ratio gap. “Many schools across Kenya continue to have gaps in education. This denies many children the opportunities to become their best,” Ruto emphasized.
