TSC Resists Union Demands to Publish Names of Promoted Teachers
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has declined the demands put forth by teacher unions regarding a list it published on its website containing TSC numbers of teachers it purportedly promoted.
Both the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) are advocating for TSC to publicly disclose the names of promoted teachers.
Knut formally requested the guidelines for the interviews administered to teachers in December 2023 and January 2024 to be made public.
They express dissatisfaction with the lack of detailed information provided by the teachers’ employer regarding the promoted teachers and question the commission’s reluctance to furnish actual names against the TSC numbers published for auditing purposes.
The union argues that without the real names of successful candidates alongside their TSC numbers, even deceased teachers could appear on the merit list.
Questions arise as to why the employer is hesitant or unwilling to publish the names of successful candidates for audit purposes. Concerns have been raised regarding the presence of both very old and extremely recent TSC numbers on the lists, leading to suspicion.
There is considerable evidence of teachers who were overlooked despite potentially being more qualified than those included in the list.
The Commission reiterates that only individuals listed will receive promotion letters. Several counties, having received the soft copy of the letters, have commenced printing and issuing them to the recipients.
TSC released a 724-page list on its website, containing only TSC numbers of the 36,505 successfully promoted following interviews conducted in December and January.
All 36,505 successful teachers will receive promotional letters and must submit five Chapter six documents as follows:
- Valid Certificate of Good Conduct from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) costing 1,050/-
- Clearance Certificate from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) free of charge
- Tax Compliance Certificate from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) free of charge
- Clearance from Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) free of charge
- A Clearance Certificate from an approved Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) costing 2,200/-
TSC has indicated that those promoted to deputy and headteacher positions will be posted outside their current sub-counties. Senior teachers are more likely to serve within schools with vacancies in their current sub-counties, whereas those promoted through confirmation will serve in schools where they have been acting for years. Unsuccessful candidates will receive regret letters as evidence of their interview attendance.
TSC conducted interviews in December and January after advertising vacancies in September of the previous year. Approximately one hundred and fifty thousand teachers were shortlisted for interviews.
Primary school teachers underwent promotion interviews from 4th to 15th December 2023, while secondary school teachers and Teacher Training College (TTC) tutors had their interviews from 3rd to 16th January 2024.
TSC Resists Union Demands to Publish Names of Promoted Teachers