Teachers’ employer Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has unexplainably cancelled an advert for the 14,738 promotion vacancies.
Promotion of teachers has become a contentious issue. The tutors’ employer has appeared twice in the last two weeks before the National Assembly Education and Research Committee.
MPs were dissatisfied with the commission’s failure to promote teachers who had been in the same job group for years.
Omboko Milemba, Chairman of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), supported the cancellation and asked the TSC to increase the number of vacancies.
He went on to say that many deserving teachers would be excluded.
“People deserving promotion are not the target of the advertisement. These are teachers in C3 and C4 job groups. It is a drop in the ocean,” Mr Milemba said.
According to the advertisement, the majority of the positions would have gone to primary schools, with only 3,392 slots going to secondary schools.
Since the Wednesday advertisement, social media has been flooded with complaints about teachers being treated unfairly.
The openings were caused by retirements, resignations, or deaths. Many teachers have also held managerial positions in the past.
Mr Milemba blamed the commission for failing to promote teachers, causing them to lose benefits.
He told the Sunday Nation that his office is gathering data to determine the scope of the problem and how much teachers are owed.
He estimated the figure to be more than Sh1 billion.