Primary school teachers seeking promotion to Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) are asking the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to hurry up with the deployment process. This comes almost three months after TSC opened the online application portal on January 13, 2025 with no communication on closure or verification date.
The deployment exercise targeting 6,000 P1 teachers is part of TSC’s plan to ease job stagnation and meet the teacher demand in junior secondary. However, the continued operation of the application portal with no progress on document verification or deployment has frustrated applicants, many of whom are now taking to social media to express their anger.
Budget Constraints May Halt Promotions
TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia told the National Assembly Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) that the Commission is facing a big budget shortfall. Although the government allocates KSh 1 billion annually for teacher promotions, the amount can only cater for 6,000 teachers, leaving many eligible candidates out.
“We need at least KSh 5 billion annually to promote teachers and address stagnation adequately,” said Macharia. “With KSh 1 billion, we can’t meet the demand of a teaching workforce of over 500,000.”
She warned that insufficient funding may lead to an education crisis especially with the looming shortage of qualified staff in JSS and Senior Secondary Schools (SSS) as the country fully transitions to the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
TSC’s Changing Requirements Under Fire
Initially, TSC said any teacher with a degree or diploma in education could be considered for deployment to JSS. But later the Commission revised this and said only teachers with a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Option) and at least a C+ in KCSE and two teaching subjects would qualify.
Teacher unions and stakeholders have since asked TSC to retool P1 teachers rather than lock them out due to academic technicalities especially when we have an emergency of staff in junior secondary.
Current JSS Staffing Deficit
According to Dr. Macharia, JSS system needs 72,422 more teachers to reach the required number of 149,350 for Grades 7, 8 and 9. So far 76,928 teachers have been posted including:* 39,550 interns (now confirmed)
- 8,378 P1 teachers deployed to JSS in 2023 and 2024
- 9,000 JSS teachers on permanent and pensionable terms
Government has allocated KSh 4.8 billion to recruit 20,000 intern teachers and plans to onboard 18,000 more by December 2025.
Deployment Process and Documents Required
After the application window closes, the document verification process will begin, led by the TSC Sub-County Directors. Eligible candidates will be issued with two deployment letters—one for the teacher and one for submission to TSC headquarters. Proximity to current workstations, subject combinations, gender, and Special Needs Education (SNE) qualifications will be considered during deployment.