The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will today 25th August 2025 midnight close teacher promotions application exercise.

The Commission had on Tuesday 12th August declared 21,313 promotion vacancies for teachers to apply online.

In an advert TSC gave teachers two weeks to apply for the slots that covers teachers from job group C1 to D4.

According to TSC, the applications must be submitted by the midnight of Monday, 25th August 2025.

Interested candidates, who meet the required qualifications can submit their applications online through the TSC promotion portal.

In the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 2025 – 2029 it signed with teachers unions, TSC pledged to promote teachers across all cadres at a cost of Sh1 Billion this financial year.

According to the promotion guidelines it released, teachers will be considered based on year of service in current grade and their age.

The scoresheet shows teachers will be promoted largely based on age, year of service in current grade and whether one has acted as school administrator.

Teachers aged 52 to 56 years will get 25 marks, 47 to 51 years will get 20 marks while those aged below 41 years will score 10 marks.

The years a teacher has served in their current grade is also key in this years promotion.

Those who have served for at least seven years in same job group will be awarded 30 marks.

Six, five, four and three years will score 25, 20, 15 and 10 marks respectively according to the promotion scoresheet.

However the Commission has given less consideration to teachers academic and professional certificates .

TSC has awarded a maximum of 3 out of 100 marks to various academic and professional certificates held by teachers.

The Commission has awarded 3 marks to PhD holders, 2 marks to Masters holders, 1 mark to Degree holders and zero marks to those with Diplomas.

A teacher must however have served for at least three years in current job group for him to be considered except those in ASAL areas who will be promoted on affirmative action.

Teachers who have served as administrators in acting capacity will be given big consideration if they produce evidence of acting.

After concluding promotion application exercise today, TSC will activate recruitment portal for unemployed teachers to apply online.

The Commission will tomorrow Tuesday 26th August, commence the recruitment exercise targeting 24,000 junior school teachers.

The employment will be on a one year internship basis seeking to address teacher shortage in Grades 7, 8 and 9.

According to the Commission the application portal shall be opened on Tuesday, 26th August and run till Monday, 9th September when it will be closed.

However details show TSC will give priority to unemployed teachers with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.

According to the scoresheet, teachers with STEM subjects will have an upper hand during the recruitment interviews.

The Commission has previously warned that there is dire shortage of science teachers in the country.

During her appearance before the National Assembly education committee, former TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia had stated that despite having over 400,000 unemployed teachers nationwide, the commission is struggling to recruit teachers for science subjects.

She noted that many schools, especially junior secondary school (JSS), are not adequately staffed with science teachers and that applications for these positions are rarely received.

“What stands out is the problem of science teachers. Based on our data, we will be able to determine the percentage of arts versus science teachers. However, it is clear that the majority are in the arts,” Macharia explained.

“I have never shied away from acknowledging the crisis of teacher shortages. We will recruit and redistribute teachers across all counties, but when we advertise for positions, we hardly receive applications for subjects like Physics.”

“We have communicated with the education ministry and have reached out to our schools multiple times regarding the lack of science teachers. Action needs to be taken,” she stated.

This move deals a blow to many unemployed teachers with Language and Art subject combinations who are looking forward to be considered for internship.

In November 2024, TSC during recruitment of 20,000 JSS intern teachers, the Commission favoured science teachers and those with technical subjects like Drawing and Design.

Teachers with science subjects combinations as well as those with technical subjects had a higher success rate in the recruitment exercise compared to those with art combinations.

In fact in some sub counties only science teachers were picked. Those successful were posted to schools in January 2025.

During the upcoming verification exercise in the sub counties the applicants will be required to produce the following document’s:

1. A copy of Teacher Certificate/print-out from TSC online portal as evidence of registration as a teacher:

2. A copy of National Council for persons With Disability (NCPWD) card (where applicable);

3. A copy of the National Identity Card (ID) or passport;

4. Two (2) colour passport size photographs;

5. A copy of Kenya Revenue Authority personal Identification Number (KRA PIN).

After verifying documents for the applicants, TSC will then require the successful ones to sign a one year internship agreement before posting them to various schools to support the Competency Based Education (CBE).

The teachers will then be retooled courtesy of TSC, CEMASTEA and KNEC.

The teachers will be trained on the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) and Competency Based Assessments (CBA).

The Teacher Internship Programme is a one year programme meant to equip and sustain competencies of persons entering the teaching service.

The programme targets unemployed registered teachers to be assigned to learning institutions where their teaching experience will be enhanced through mentorship, coaching and exposure to practical teaching experience. 

The internship period will be for twelve months though previously some intern teachers served for two years.

Teacher internship is not a remunerative engagement. However, interns attached to Junior Secondary schools will be eligible for a monthly stipend of Kshs. 20 ,000/=.

The stipend will be paid subject to statutory deductions like SHIF, Housing levy, and NSSF where applicable.  

On successful completion of the Internship Programme, teacher interns will be awarded a certificate.

TSC awards 50 marks to teachers who served on internship terms during pnp recruitment thus making conversion to pnp for those who served on internship automatic.