Interview SMS Out: TSC Lists Documents Junior School Teachers Must Carry
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has begun sending SMS invitations to teachers who applied for the 20,000 junior school teaching jobs, in a recruitment exercise that is expected to end with successful candidates reporting to their schools in January 2027 under new terms of service.
The messages tell applicants where and when to appear before selection panels. They also list the academic and professional documents each candidate must carry.
Anyone who got the SMS should treat the list as a checklist, because the Commission’s recruitment guidelines make clear that missing, inconsistent or doubtful documents can end a candidacy.
What teachers have been told to carry
According to the invitation messages, candidates should present originals and clear photocopies of the following:
- TSC certificate of registration as a teacher
- Diploma and degree certificates, together with official transcripts
- KCSE and KCPE certificates, including those for every attempt where a candidate re-sat an examination
- KCPE and KCSE school leaving certificates
- National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) card, for candidates living with disability
- An affidavit, where the names on the national ID differ from those on academic or professional certificates
- Letter of internship agreement
The list closely follows TSC Circular No. 15/2026, issued on 13 August 2026, which sets out the guidelines for recruiting teachers on permanent and pensionable terms for the 2026/2027 financial year.
The circular also requires the national identification card. It states plainly that provisional transcripts will not be accepted, so candidates holding only provisional documents should get official ones before the interview date.
The guidelines add that candidates who retook KCPE or KCSE must have certified copies of certificates for each attempt, authenticated by the Sub-County Director.
Where an examination result was cancelled, the candidate needs a letter from the head of the institution and a certified KNEC printout from the school confirming the cancellation.
The affidavit for name discrepancies must be sworn under the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act.
Invitations are meant to arrive at least seven days before the interview, via SMS, giving candidates time to gather and organise their papers.
The timeline
Applications opened on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, and closed on Monday, 31 August 2026. TSC has since published a roadmap for the rest of the process.
The sub-county selection stage comes first. It involves vetting of documents, filling of employment forms and issuing of offer of employment letters.
The exercise is expected to take ten days, and TSC boards will monitor the recruitment process throughout.
Next comes the handling of complaints from candidates at county level. This runs for five days, from Monday, 7 December 2026 to Friday, 11 December 2026.
After that, recruitment documents, including merit lists, will be forwarded to TSC headquarters. This stage has seven days, from Monday, 14 December 2026 to Tuesday, 22 December 2026.
Successful teachers will be posted to schools on Monday, 4 January 2027, to begin work under the new employment terms.
Mainly a confirmation exercise for interns
TSC opened the application window to all interested unemployed teachers. In practice, however, the exercise is largely about confirming the veteran junior school intern teachers the Commission hired on 1 January 2025.
They are due to complete their mandatory two-year internship by 31 December 2026, and the recruitment is the route by which they move onto permanent and pensionable terms.
That explains why a letter of internship agreement appears on the list of documents in the SMS invitations. It also explains how the scoring is structured.
How the panels will work
The circular specifies the composition of selection panels for different institutions. For junior secondary schools, the panel has three members: the TSC Sub-County Director as chairperson, the TSC Sub-County Human Resource Officer as secretary, and a Curriculum Support Officer as a member.
If a member cannot attend because of unavoidable circumstances, the TSC County Director appoints a suitable officer to stand in.
The process begins after the system generates the list of applicants. The County Director distributes it to Sub-County Directors, who constitute the panels, set the interview venues and schedules, and inform applicants.
Panels are expected to verify professional, academic and other documents carefully before making selections, and they interview only those who meet the set criteria.
Applicants must appear in person. Those with hearing or speech disabilities are entitled to bring a sign language interpreter.
Panels are bound by the Public Officer Ethics Act and the TSC Code of Conduct and Ethics. Regional and County Directors are also required to induct panel members on the relevant sections of the TSC Act and the Code of Regulations for Teachers before recruitment starts.
Before anyone is interviewed, the Sub-County Director must confirm that each applicant is properly registered under Section 23(1) of the TSC Act, 2012. Applicants who are not legally registered teachers are not eligible for consideration.
How candidates will be scored
Candidates are marked using a selection score guide with a grand total of 100 marks. The guide spreads marks across four areas.
Academic and professional qualifications carry up to three marks. A first class degree or distinction scores three, a second class or credit scores two, and a pass scores one.
Age carries up to seven marks: seven for those aged 50 and above, five for those aged 45 to 49, and three for those aged 44 and below.
Length of stay since qualifying as a teacher carries up to 20 marks. Those who qualified in 2010 or earlier get the full 20, and the score falls by one mark for each later year, down to four marks for 2026. The guide notes that the year used is the one in which the applicant satisfactorily qualified as a teacher under Commission policy, not the year on the certificate used for the academic score.
Experience carries by far the heaviest weight, at up to 70 marks. An applicant who has served as an intern with the Commission continuously in the sub-county for 12 months or more gets 70 marks, and one with below 12 months gets 50.
For the interns due to complete their two-year term, this weighting matters. Because experience accounts for most of the marks, a candidate with a full internship in the sub-county starts with a large lead, and the smaller academic and age scores mostly decide the rankings among candidates with similar service. Teachers with disabilities are scored on a parallel guide with the same structure.
Tie-breakers, preferences and quotas
The guidelines say that where candidates tie, the selection is decided in this order: length of stay since graduation, the quality of academic certificates, then the quality of professional certificates. If candidates tie on aggregate grades, subject grades are considered.
They also set out preferences. Applicants who have not previously been employed by the Commission on permanent and pensionable terms are to be preferred.
Preference also goes to applicants from the respective sub-county first, then from the county, according to merit.
The Commission has committed to reserving at least 5 percent of the advertised slots for teachers with disabilities, in line with the Constitution and the law.
Candidates with disabilities are asked to state the nature of their disability, which informs their placement, and to carry their NCPWD card. Sub-County Directors are also required to make sure selection venues are accessible.
Warnings on forged and false information
The circular is firm on integrity. Any applicant who presents forged or fake academic, professional or other documents commits an offence and will be disqualified or deregistered.
Any application or offer of employment based on misleading information will be revoked immediately, without further reference to the candidate.
Sub-County Directors must certify photocopies as true copies of the original certificates before the interview.
Panels’ work is documented. The Sub-County Director prepares the merit lists during the interview and passes them to the County Director.
The County Director verifies that all selected applicants meet the conditions, and only then issues the signed offer of employment letters.
Application for Employment Forms are issued only to successful applicants on the merit list, after county-level verification.
Successful candidates should prepare for the next stage. Documents sent to TSC headquarters include certified copies of the national ID, registration certificate, academic and professional certificates, bank card or plate, KRA PIN certificate, SHIF printout number, NSSF card and a duly filled next of kin form.
Candidates also need two passport-size colour photographs, an original medical examination report in Form GP 69, and a completed pay point particulars form.
If you are unhappy with the outcome
The guidelines provide a three-step grievance process, with fixed deadlines. A dissatisfied applicant must submit a written complaint to the County Director and email TSC headquarters at dirstaffing@tsc.go.ke within seven days of the selection process.
The County Director has seven days to analyse and address complaints and must tell headquarters what action was taken.
An applicant who is still dissatisfied can appeal in writing to the Director of Staffing at headquarters within seven days of the County Director’s decision.
An Appeals Committee then investigates and takes action within 14 days. These steps feed into the five-day county-level complaints window from 7 to 11 December.
What teachers should do now
For the thousands of interns who have worked in classrooms since January 2025, the next few weeks matter a great deal.
Their advice to colleagues is likely to be practical: confirm that your TSC registration is current, collect official transcripts rather than provisional ones, and gather certificates for every examination attempt.
If your names differ across documents, swear the affidavit early, and have photocopies ready to be certified.
Candidates should also keep their internship agreement letters within reach, since the experience marks depend on proving continuous service in the sub-county.
Teachers should also watch their phones. The SMS invitation carries the venue, date and time, and missing it could mean missing a place on the merit list.
If TSC’s roadmap holds, the process will close the year with offer letters in hand, and the new teachers will walk into their schools on 4 January 2027 as permanent and pensionable employees.
