TSC Receives Sh1 Billion for Promotions; Category of Teachers to be Promoted

A total of 13, 713 teachers who had been stuck in the same job group are now able to celebrate after it was revealed on Thursday that the National Treasury had granted their employer Sh1 billion to pay for their promotions.

The Teacher Service Commission (TSC) had previously estimated it needed Sh2.2 billion to promote teachers in elementary, secondary, and tertiary education to the next pay grade.

Parliamentary Committee on Education chairman Julius Melly stated yesterday that the decision to use the funds for promotions was made to encourage teachers to provide high-quality instruction.

While speaking to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) in Mombasa, Mr. Melly urged TSC to prioritize promoting teachers who had been stuck in the same grade for years.

To help advance educators, we provided the ministry with Sh1 billion. Since these educators have not been promoted in years, he argued, they should be prioritized for the next promotion.

He made this statement when KESSHA chairman Kahi Indimuli expressed concern about the lag time between functioning as a deputy principal and being promoted to the permanent position.

Mr. Indimuli stated that new principals were sent to schools where deputies had been acting for over six months, but the deputies were degraded instead of being considered for advancement.

Indimuli remarked that it was “demoralizing and diminishing” for a deputy principal to act for a while before being demoted to a lower position, such as a class teacher or subject head.

TSC’s early circular estimates that around 4,595 current Job Group C primary school teachers will be promoted to Job Group C2.

Those in Job Group C2 became C3 workers, and those in C3 became C4 teachers. It was anticipated that this operation would cost Sh1 billion. The training will begin in July.

According to earlier notification from TSC, the cost of promoting 652 college instructors from Grade D3 to Grade D4 is more than Sh175 million.

About 13,713 middle and high school teachers will be promoted to positions such as principal, vice principal, senior master, head teacher, or deputy head teacher as part of this strategy.

The revised plan calls for the promotion of 2,733 regular primary school principals, 1,330 regular secondary school teachers, 1,725 deputy principal IIs, 602 regular school leaders, 224 regular secondary school deputy principal IIIs, and 208 senior master IIs.

Parliament has provided TSC with at least Sh2.2 billion to pay for teacher promotions and raises.

Yesterday, representatives from the Ministry of Education reassured Mombasa’s principals that the government is actively working to address the city’s severe teacher shortage. An additional 24,000 educators, according to Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, will be hired in the upcoming fiscal year.

This brings President William Ruto’s total number of teachers employed by his government to 60,000.

To better accommodate newly hired teachers with families, Indimuli requested yesterday that TSC reduce the statutory five-year pre-transfer period to two years.

He also voiced his displeasure with the interference of politicians in the transfer of teachers and their ability to affect who moves and who stays in their positions.

He alleged that politicians were seeking to move instructors who had not requested de-localization.

He vowed to out the politicians who were trying to force the removal of instructors they didn’t like.

“As teachers, we have been employed to work anywhere in this country and any teacher who has not asked for transfer should not be harassed by politicians,” said Indimuli.

Melly, on the other hand, refuted charges that MPs were usurping the TSC’s job of transferring teachers and insisted that the lawmakers were only assisting staffing of teachers, particularly in regions of high demand.

The role of the TSC is not being usurped by members of parliament. Melly explains that their services “complement and assist in management and staffing of the schools.”

For example, he proposed doing away with distinctions between national and county schools so that any principal could lead any school.

He claimed that this label was the reason many educators were denied opportunities for higher-level positions like principal.

TSC Receives Sh1 Billion for Promotions; Category of Teachers to be Promoted