From right: Education CS Julius Ogamba, TSC CEO Evaleen Mitei, Basic Education PS Prof. Julius Bitok, and KUSNET Secretary General James Torome during the teachers’ meeting at State House, Nairobi.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will promote 50,000 teachers next year as the government pledges to double funding for career progression to Sh2 billion.

President William Ruto announced at State House, Nairobi, during a meeting with more than 10,000 teachers, responding to concerns raised by KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu, who had highlighted the stagnation of teachers in the same job groups for over a decade.

Ruto admitted that career progression had long been neglected. “One of the biggest problems that we have had to deal with is delocalisation. I think we have significantly solved delocalisation. There is still a small corner remaining. We have also had teachers stagnating in one job group for 10, 15, even 20 years,” he said.

He explained that the government had already set aside promotion funds in the 2023–2024, 2024–2025, and 2025–2026 financial years. “When this was brought to my attention, we provided money for teacher promotion. We provided KSh 1 billion in 2023–2024, 2024–2025, and 2025–2026,” he said.

With this investment, TSC has been promoting the training of an average of 25,000 teachers annually. “In the last few years, I have statistics from TSC showing that we have promoted 151,000 teachers, at least moving one ladder,” Ruto stated.

However, with Kenya’s teaching force estimated at 400,000–500,000, he noted that the pace was still too slow. “It will take a while if we go at this rate. My suggestion is that we double the resources available for teacher promotion,” he said.

Ruto instructed the Ministry of Education to increase the budget to Sh2 billion, enabling TSC to double the number of promotions. “From next year, instead of promoting 25,000 teachers, we will encourage 50,000.

Tunaelewana (Do we understand each other?). Wacha tuanzie hapo (Let’s start there) halafu tukikutana tena next year tuone mahali imefika (and then when we meet again next year, let’s see where it has reached),” he affirmed.