In January of next year, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) plans to promote and deploy around 26,000 primary school teachers to junior secondary schools. This initiative focuses on P1 instructors holding various diplomas and degrees, preparing them to teach at grade nine. TSC has compiled county-level lists of eligible teachers and is currently working with Heads of Institutions (HOIs) to collect additional information for document verification before posting teachers to sub-counties.

TSC has requested that primary school heads provide details on each teacher’s KCSE mean grade, specific teaching qualifications (such as Bachelor of Education in Arts, Primary, Science, Early Childhood Development Education, or Special Needs Education), and two teaching subjects, along with mean grades for those with secondary options.

Alongside these primary teachers, senior, deputy, and headteachers are also being considered for deployment to junior secondary levels. This effort comes amid a staffing shortage in junior secondary schools, which TSC aims to address by recruiting 18,000 intern teachers for these schools soon.

To tackle critical teacher shortages in grades seven and eight and to prepare for the grade nine rollout next year, TSC has adjusted requirements for junior school teaching. Now, teachers with degrees in primary education, early childhood education, and special needs education are eligible for deployment, which previously required a secondary education degree with minimum grades of C+ at KCSE and in two teaching subjects.