The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started issuing those promotion letters to successful teachers. You can find those letters at your County Director’s office right now. But the commission still hasn’t published the full list of promoted teachers from those January and February 2025 promotion interviews. That’s as per TSC policies, which say that list must be made public.
Promotion Interviews and Slots
Interviews for post-primary school teachers—and those in secondary schools and Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs)—ran from January 27 to February 6, 2025. Primary school teachers were interviewed earlier, from January 13 to January 23, 2025.
TSC advertised a total of 25,288 promotion slots. That included:
- 5,690 slots for school administrators (Advert 1 to 4 of 2024, from November 12 to 18, 2024).
- 19,943 more slots for teachers from Job Group C1 to D3 (advertised on December 17, 2024). Of those:
- 16,109 positions went to primary schools.
- 9,179 positions were for post-primary institutions.
This year’s promotion cycle saw an astonishing 189,000 applications. Of those, 96,640 primary school teachers and 44,043 post-primary school teachers made it to the shortlist for interviews.
Interview Process and Selection Criteria
This year’s interviews were a bit different from previous years. The focus was on verifying documents rather than questioning. Teachers had to bring along identification, academic credentials and other supporting documents for the review panel to look at. That panel included Sub-County Directors, Human Resource Officers and Curriculum Support Officers.
The selection process was based on a TSC scoring sheet. That sheet gave preference to teachers with more experience and seniority. Here’s how the scoring criteria broke down:
Age-Based Scoring:
- 55+ years – 30 marks
- 50-54 years – 26 marks
- 45-49 years – 22 marks
- 40-44 years – 18 marks
- 30-39 years – 14 marks
Academic Qualification:
- Master’s Degree – 5 marks
- Bachelor’s Degree – 3 marks
- Diploma – 1 mark
Length of Stay in Current Grade:
- 7+ years – 50 marks
- 6 years – 40 marks
- 5 years – 30 marks
- 4 years – 20 marks
- 3 years – 10 marks
Other Considerations:
- TPAD (Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development) Ratings (Maximum of 10 marks)
- KNEC Examiner Status (4 marks)
- Presentation (1 mark)
Next Steps for Successful and Unsuccessful Candidates
Teachers who’ve been successfully promoted will get their official promotion letters from their County and Sub-County Directors. Those who weren’t selected will get regret letters—with the opportunity to apply for future promotions.
To finalize those promotions, successful candidates will need to provide the five Chapter 6 compliance documents required under Kenya’s Leadership and Integrity laws:
- A Certificate of Good Conduct from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)
- A Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) Clearance Certificate
- A Tax Compliance Certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA)
- An Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Clearance
- A Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) Clearance Certificate
TSC Seeks Additional Funding for More Promotions
The commission was allocated Ksh 1 billion for teacher promotions this year. But it’s currently seeking more funding to promote another 20,000 teachers. With mass retirements coming up in June and August 2025, those promotions are meant to fill the leadership gaps left by Heads of Institutions (HOIs) and Deputy Heads of Institutions (DHOIs).
List of 19,943 Advertised Promotion Vacancies
Below is a summary of TSC’s advertised promotion slots:
Post-Primary and TTC Positions
- Chief Principal (Regular School) – 44 vacancies
- Chief Principal (TTC) – 3 vacancies
- Senior Principal (Regular School) – 126 vacancies
- Principal (Regular School) – 652 vacancies
- Deputy Principal II (Secondary) – 786 vacancies
- Senior Master III (Regular) – 1,987 vacancies
Primary School Positions
- Senior Head Teacher (Regular) – 254 vacancies
- Head Teacher (Regular) – 2,130 vacancies
- Deputy Head Teacher II (Regular) – 3,653 vacancies
- Senior Teacher I (Regular) – 4,703 vacancies
- Senior Teacher II (Regular) – 1,364 vacancies
For a detailed list of all 19,943 advertised positions, teachers should check the official TSC website or visit their County Director’s office.
