Ruto: Teacher Promotions to Rise to 50,000 from Next Financial Year
President says the 2027/2028 budget will fund more upgrades, as new CPG due in two weeks will take effect in July 2027
NAIROBI, Monday, October 5, 2026 – Thousands of teachers stuck in the same job group for years could soon move up the ladder faster.
President William Ruto announced on Monday that the number of teachers promoted each year will rise from the current 34,016 to 50,000 beginning next financial year.
Speaking during World Teachers Day celebrations at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, before thousands of teachers, the President said his government will increase the budget for teacher promotions in the next financial year to make the higher number possible.
The announcement was met with loud applause from the stadium. For teachers who have spent a decade or more waiting for an upgrade, it is a clear signal that the bottleneck in the profession is about to ease.
The biggest promotion exercise in a single year
President Ruto noted that the number of teachers promoted has already risen to 34,016, which he described as the biggest number promoted by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in a single year.
That figure is significant against the history of promotions in the teaching service. Under the 2018 Career Progression Guidelines (CPG), teachers have often waited long periods between promotions, partly because the number of vacancies in higher grades was limited and many stages were competitive. A promotion exercise of 34,016 teachers has helped to clear part of the backlog.
The President’s promise is to go further. Raising the number to 50,000 would mean about 16,000 more teachers moving up each year compared with the current record, an increase of nearly 47 percent.
If sustained, it would change the experience of a large section of the teaching workforce, particularly primary school teachers, who have historically progressed more slowly than their secondary school counterparts.
The President said the higher number will be supported by an increased budget for promotions. Promotions come with a higher salary, and the cost grows with every teacher moved up, so the allocation in the national budget will determine whether the target is achieved.
A new CPG within two weeks
The promotions announcement came alongside the news teachers have waited for the longest: the new CPG. President Ruto said he has consulted the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) chairperson, Sammy Chepkwony, who has assured him that the job evaluation is nearing completion and the new guidelines will be out in two weeks.
The President said the new CPG will be better than the current one, which was introduced in 2018 following a 2016 job evaluation.
The 2018 framework has been blamed for widespread stagnation, with teachers spending many years in a single grade because of limited slots and competitive progression.
The new guidelines are meant to fix that. A draft titled “Highlights of the Proposed Revised Career Progression Guidelines for Teachers and Curriculum Support Officers,” released for public participation in June, proposes reducing the number of career levels from 56 to 43. Fewer levels are expected to shorten career paths and speed up progression.
The draft also proposes separating administrative and professional roles, so that teachers can grow in their careers without having to become administrators.
It further distinguishes entry points for P1 certificate holders, diploma teachers and degree teachers, giving clearer pathways into the profession.
Effective July 2027
President Ruto said teachers will have a new way of progressing in their careers that will take effect starting July 2027, the beginning of the 2027/2028 financial year.
That timing matters. It coincides with the start of the financial year in which the number of promotions is expected to rise to 50,000, which suggests that the larger promotion budget and the new CPG are designed to work together.
The President also said the new framework will be integrated with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for 2025 to 2029.
This is important for teachers and unions, who will want to ensure that the CPG does not conflict with the terms already agreed in the CBA. Aligning the two is meant to give teachers a single, consistent set of terms on pay, progression and conditions of service.
Between now and July 2027, there is time for the details to be worked out. The publication of the CPG in two weeks will begin that process, followed by the salary implications that flow from the job evaluation.
Why promotions matter so much
For a teacher, promotion is more than a title. It determines salary, pension, status in the school and motivation. When promotions stall, the effects are felt in the classroom as well as in the payslip.
Teachers who feel overlooked often become demoralised, and unions have repeatedly raised stagnation as one of the biggest grievances in the profession.
The concerns are sharpest in primary schools. Many primary teachers have spent most of their careers in the lower job groups, with higher grades highly competitive and vacancies few.
Raising the annual promotion figure to 50,000 would give many of them a realistic chance of moving up, provided the slots are distributed fairly across the country and across levels of education.
The new CPG is expected to complement this by providing clearer progression routes. If the guidelines set clear timelines for promotion, teachers will be able to plan their careers with more confidence.
Teachers who reviewed the June draft have asked for exactly that, along with automatic progression within common cadres after satisfactory service and appraisal.
What teachers will be watching
While the announcement has raised hopes, teachers and their unions will look closely at the details. Several questions are likely to dominate the discussion in the coming weeks.
The first is whether the promotion slots will be distributed fairly. Teachers will want to know how the 50,000 positions will be allocated across primary, junior school and secondary levels, across counties and across job groups. Transparent criteria will be essential to avoid allegations of favouritism.
The second is the appraisal system. If promotions depend heavily on appraisals, teachers will expect the process to be transparent, evidence-based, appealable and applied uniformly nationwide. Trust in the system will depend on it.
The third is the financial implications. The draft CPG postponed the salary implications until after the job evaluation.
Teachers will expect the salary scales, allowances and other benefits to be published promptly so they can see what the reforms mean for their pay.
The fourth is protection during the transition. Teachers will want an assurance that no one will lose salary, grade, pension rights or accrued benefits when they migrate to the new framework. A clear clause to that effect would help to secure acceptance and maintain industrial harmony.
Other announcements at Kasarani
Promotions and the CPG were among several issues the President addressed. He said the government has employed more than 100,000 teachers since taking office in 2022, and that another 20,000 will be recruited by the end of the year, bringing the total to 120,000 by the end of his five-year term.
He also announced that teachers will no longer pay Ksh 6,000 for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) courses, as the government has allocated Ksh 900 million to absorb the cost.
TPD is required for the renewal of the teaching certificate, and the fee had been a major source of complaint.
On curriculum reform, the President said the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER) helped stabilise the Competency Based Education (CBE) system, including by domiciling Junior School in primary schools, which brought schools closer to home and saved parents and learners the cost of long journeys.
He added that more than 200,000 teachers have undergone capacity building to align them with the new curriculum.
Together, the announcements form a package aimed at teachers’ welfare: more jobs, faster promotions, a new career framework and free professional development.
A test of delivery
The President’s remarks mark what may be the biggest gain for teachers since he took office in 2022. A new CPG that ends the stagnation blamed on the 2018 framework, combined with a jump in promotions to 50,000, would address two of the most persistent complaints in the profession.
Yet teachers have heard promises before, and their reaction will depend on delivery. The first test comes in two weeks, when the new CPG is due.
The second will come in the budget for the next financial year, when the funds for the extra promotions must be allocated. The third will be July 2027, when the new progression system is meant to take effect.
If each of these milestones is met, the announcement at Kasarani could be remembered as the point at which teachers’ career prospects turned around.
If not, it will be added to the long list of promises that teachers will want the government to keep.
For now, teachers have a headline number, 50,000, and a timeline to hold the government to. They will be watching closely.
