Promotion of Secondary School Teachers by Gender, Experience and School Type, a Case in Kenya

Abstract

Although the criteria of promotion of secondary school teachers in Kenya is well outlined by the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) in terms of academic qualifications, length of service and performance on the job, literature shows that many teachers continue to stagnate in one job group. Literature suggests that this has tended to reduce teachers’ morale making many of them to seek alternative avenues to achieve professional development and attainment of personal goals outside the school setup. This has raised concerns from teachers through their trade unions, educationists and other stake holders. Literature also suggests that variations of work environments are less considered during promotions despite their great contribution to performance of both teachers and learners which is a criterion of promotion. Also, most studies in Kenya have considered promotion of teachers with less emphasis addressing it in passing as part of perceived major studies while the few specific studies address it in general terms with little concrete evidence to explicitly describe the situation. It is in this context that this study sought to investigate implementation of promotion policies by the TSC in secondary schools using the case of North, West and Central districts of Nyandarua County. The study considered differentiations of teachers along type of school, experience and gender. Descriptive research design was used where the data obtained was generalizable for all the teachers in the three districts. All the teachers in two county schools (former provincial schools), three district boarding schools and eight district day schools out of the forty nine government secondary schools were involved. Thirteen principals from the sampled secondary schools, the three District Education Human resource officers (DEHROs) from the three districts and two officials involved in promotion of teachers in TSC headquarters were involved. Close ended data was made into frequency distribution tables and Percentages of these distributions computed according to the variables in the objectives using years of service as the basis of analysis.