The morning sun streamed through the windows of the Teachers Service Commission headquarters in Upper Hill on November 21, 2025, illuminating the packed press briefing room where acting Chief Executive Officer Eveleen Mitei stood before a banner that simply read “9,000 New Teachers – A New Chapter.” Flanked by commissioners and flanked by stacks of freshly printed recruitment guidelines, Mitei announced the largest single recruitment of teachers since the 2021 delocalisation reversal, a move designed to replace retiring staff, fill long-standing vacancies, and finally stabilise pupil-teacher ratios that have ballooned in some counties to 70:1. “We are bringing nine thousand qualified, passionate teachers into our classrooms starting January 2026,” Mitei said, her voice carrying the quiet authority of someone who has spent months negotiating the budgetary approvals. “Seven thousand and sixty-five will serve in primary schools, twelve in the new junior schools, and two thousand and eighty-two in secondary schools. This is not just about numbers; it is about giving every Kenyan child the attention they deserve and restoring dignity to a profession that has carried this country through storms.”
The breakdown reflects both demographic reality and the lingering effects of the competency-based curriculum transition. Primary schools, still absorbing the final cohort of Grade 6 learners before full junior school rollout, will receive the lion’s share at 7,065 posts, with heavy weighting toward arid and semi-arid counties where natural attrition has been highest. The 2,082 secondary school slots are spread across all subjects but with particular emphasis on Mathematics, English, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, disciplines that have suffered chronic shortages since the 100 percent transition policy began in 2019. The twelve junior school posts, though symbolically small, mark the first time the Commission is recruiting specifically for Grade 7-9 under the new structure. “These twelve pioneer junior school teachers will be master trainers,” explained TSC Director of Staffing Julius Olayo during the technical briefing that followed. “They will anchor the curriculum in the pilot junior schools before we scale up recruitment in 2026 and 2027.”
Applications opened immediately on the TSC online portal, with a hard deadline of midnight on December 8, 2025. The process is entirely digital—no hard copies, no sub-county offices, no mercy for late submissions. Candidates must possess at least a P1 certificate with KCSE C+ mean grade for primary, or a Bachelor of Education or Postgraduate Diploma in Education for secondary, and be registered with TSC. “We have simplified everything,” Mitei assured the room full of journalists and union officials. “You log in with your ID number, upload your certificates, choose up to three counties, and submit. Results will be out by December 20, interviews in the first week of January, and successful candidates report to schools on January 5.” She warned that any attempt to use middlemen would lead to automatic disqualification, a pointed reference to the scandals that marred previous recruitment drives.
In Kisii County, where pupil-teacher ratios in some primary schools have climbed past 85:1, the news travelled faster than the morning mist lifting from the hills. At Itibo Primary School in Bobasi, headteacher Margaret Nyanchoka gathered her staff under the mango tree that serves as their staffroom and read the recruitment notice aloud from her phone. “Seven thousand primary posts,” she said, her voice trembling with something close to disbelief. “For the first time in twelve years we might actually get a teacher for every class instead of combining Standard Six, Seven, and Eight because we are short-staffed.” Her colleague, 28-year-old Clinton Omondi who teaches 112 pupils single-handedly in a makeshift classroom of iron sheets, allowed himself a small smile. “I applied last night at 11:47 p.m.,” he admitted. “If I get posted even to Turkana, I will go. Anything is better than watching children sit on the floor because there are no teachers to split the stream.”
The announcement has also energised thousands of unemployed teachers who have been surviving on relief teaching and private academies. In Eldoret, 26-year-old Mercy Chebet, a 2023 Bachelor of Education graduate currently earning Sh8,000 a month marking KCSE scripts, refreshed the TSC portal every ten minutes from a cyber café. “I have been applying for BOM terms that pay fifteen thousand before tax and disappear when the term ends,” she said, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. “A permanent and pensionable job at thirty-eight thousand starting salary feels like winning the lottery.” By Friday evening, the portal had already recorded 87,000 applications, with servers briefly slowing under the weight of desperate hope.
Union officials welcomed the recruitment but cautioned that numbers alone would not solve deeper issues. KNUT Secretary-General Collins Oyuu, speaking from the floor during the question session, stood with his trademark red tie slightly askew. “Nine thousand is good, but we still have a deficit of over one hundred and sixteen thousand teachers if we are to achieve the UNESCO recommended ratio,” he told Mitei directly. “We thank the Commission for this step, but we ask that the 2026 budget provides for at least twenty thousand more.” KUPPET Secretary-General Akello Misori, seated two rows behind, added his voice through a raised hand. “Please ensure merit and regional balance. North Eastern has been forgotten for too long. A child in Mandera deserves the same teacher attention as a child in Kiambu.”
TSC responded that the distribution formula gives extra weighting to hardship areas, with Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, and Turkana together receiving over 1,200 of the primary slots. “We are not just filling vacancies,” Mitei emphasised. “We are healing wounds of decades where some counties lost teachers through natural attrition and never got replacements.” She revealed that the Commission had secured an additional Sh11.2 billion in the supplementary budget specifically ring-fenced for these nine thousand salaries, a rare victory in a year dominated by budget cuts.
Parents, too, allowed themselves cautious optimism. In Kawangware’s Gatwekera village, 34-year-old mother of three, Beatrice Auma, queued at a local cyber to help her nephew submit his application. “My son is in Class Eight with seventy-nine others,” she said, shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun. “The teacher writes on the board and half the class cannot see. When these new teachers come, maybe my son will finally learn instead of just copying notes he cannot read.”
As dusk settled over Upper Hill and the TSC portal clock ticked toward its first million hits, Eveleen Mitei closed the briefing with a simple promise. “To every qualified teacher refreshing that portal tonight, know this: your country needs you. Your pupils are waiting. Apply before midnight December 8, and let us together write the next chapter of Kenyan education.”
