Inside major shake-up in promotions to return of powerful classroom teachers
Education
By
Lewis Nyaundi
| Jun 18, 2026
A major shake-up in teachers’ promotions is in the offing.
The new scheme aims to restore academic qualifications as a key promotion criterion and reduce job groups from 11 to 9 to address stagnation.
The reforms also seek to review the career progression guideline adopted in 2017 by allowing teachers who choose to remain in the classroom to rise through the ranks and earn the same grades and salary scales as their counterparts in administration.
At the same time, promotions will once again consider academic qualifications, including master’s and PhD degrees, a practice that was dropped in 2017.
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But that’s not all, the changes will see some job groups merged, while a new uniform structure will replace the current alphabetical system.
The revised framework will run from Teacher 9 at the entry level to Teacher 1 at the top, doing away with the long-standing B5 to D5 classification.
The overhaul is expected to end widespread concerns among teachers that the career progression guidelines that have led to stalled promotions over the past decade.
The Teachers Service Commission is today expected to meet teachers unions to fine-tune the proposals.
Acting Chief Executive Officer Evaleen Mitei said the outcome of the consultation would give the way to discussions with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
“The SRC will do the job evaluation and establish the job worth of each teacher before providing a summary structure (financial compensation) under the new proposed job groups,” Mitei told The Standard.
Under the proposed structure, chief principals who are currently in Job Group D5 will retain their seniority but will now be placed under Teacher 1, the highest rank in the new system.
Senior principals, currently in D4, will move to Teacher 2, while principals who are in D3 will now fall under Teacher 3.
But major changes are in the middle management levels where multiple job groups are being merged.
Deputy principals II in D2, those in III in D1 as well as senior master I and II positions will all be collapsed into Teacher 4. This means several previously distinct leadership roles will now fall under one grade.
At the same time, roles such as senior headteacher in D1 will be absorbed into this level, further consolidating administrative positions.
In the next tier, senior master III in C5 will move to Teacher 5 and be redesignated as senior teacher in secondary schools, while headteachers in primary schools in C5 will now fall under Teacher 5 but take up a new title of Principal II.
Senior master IV and deputy headteachers II, currently in C4, will shift to Teacher 6, with primary school holders of these positions becoming deputy principals under the new structure.
Classroom teachers will also see a direct and simplified transition. Secondary Teacher I, currently in C3, will become Teacher 6, while Secondary Teacher II in C2 will move to Teacher 7. Secondary Teacher III in C1 will transition to Teacher 8, aligning them with diploma-level entry positions.
Primary Teacher I in C1 will also move to Teacher 8, while Primary Teacher II, currently the entry grade at B5, will become Teacher 9, the lowest rank in the new system.
However, Mitei said the B5, now ranked as Teacher 9, will be obsolete over time as it is the entry level for teachers who are certificate holders.
“Under the Competency Based Education, teachers are now required to train at diploma level as the lowest qualification, but we still have those who have not been absorbed who trained at certificate level,” she said.