The Shadow of Insecurity: Teachers’ Growing Alarm Over the Nexus Between TPD Modules and Contractual Employment
The teaching profession in Kenya stands at a precarious crossroads. Across staffrooms, teacher training colleges, and union offices, a palpable sense of anxiety is brewing.
This unease stems from a perceived, calculated convergence between the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) renewed vigor in implementing the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) modules and the government’s broader, more radical push to dismantle the traditional Permanent and Pensionable (P&P) employment model in favor of short-term, performance-based contracts.
For thousands of educators, the TPD program is no longer viewed merely as a mechanism for pedagogical improvement.
Instead, it is increasingly seen as a potential gatekeeping mechanism—a prerequisite for professional licensure that may ultimately serve as the yardstick for contract renewals in a future where tenure is abolished.
This article explores the growing intersection of these two policies and the profound implications they hold for the future of the teaching service in Kenya.
The Paradigm Shift: From Tenure to Performance-Based Contracts
The anxiety among teachers is not unfounded. It traces back to the aggressive policy signaling from the Public Service docket.
In February 2026, Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku cast a long shadow over the future of the civil service.
During the launch of the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) strategic plan for 2025–2029, CS Ruku made a bold, if controversial, announcement: the government is drafting a Public Service Transformation Policy aimed at phasing out permanent and pensionable employment.
The CS’s rhetoric was blunt. Arguing that the current system breeds “complacency” and “a sense of entitlement” among long-serving officers, Ruku proposed a shift toward three- or five-year renewable contracts.
Under this framework, employment would be tethered to strict performance targets.
“If you perform properly, you are given another contract… If you don’t meet the contractual basis, you go and look for another job,” Ruku stated, explicitly citing the perceived contrast between the punctuality of interns and the alleged absenteeism of permanent staff as a primary driver for these reforms.
For the teaching fraternity, this is not just administrative jargon—it is an existential threat. If the government’s vision of a “transformed” public service is realized, the hallowed ground of permanent employment—the bedrock of a teacher’s career—would vanish.
In its place would be a high-pressure environment where every five years, a teacher’s career hangs in the balance of a performance appraisal.
The TPD Re-emergence: A Tool for Control?
While the government debates the contract model, the TSC has been busy laying the infrastructure for professional accountability.
In April 2026, the Commission held a high-level Stakeholder Engagement Forum at the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE).
The forum, which brought together institutional heavyweights like the British Council, CEMASTEA, KICD, and major unions like KNUT and KUPPET, was billed as a strategy session to improve learning outcomes through enhanced pedagogical skills.
TSC Acting CEO Ms. Evaleen Mitei emphasized that TPD is essential for keeping teachers abreast of technological and pedagogical evolutions.
On its surface, this is a standard institutional mandate. However, for the average classroom teacher, the optics are different.
The TPD program requires teachers to undertake six modules over a thirty-year career. The completion of these modules is the prerequisite for obtaining a teaching certificate—a professional license that must be renewed every five years.
The legal weight behind this is clear: Section 35 of the TSC Act stipulates that any teacher who fails to undertake the prescribed professional development or secure a practicing certificate is essentially prohibited from teaching.
This is where the fear of a “connected agenda” takes root. If a teacher is required to hold a license to practice, and that license is contingent upon TPD modules, and their employment is subsequently contingent upon a renewable contract based on performance—does the TPD then become the ultimate tool for workforce pruning?
Teachers fear that failing to hit a target in an appraisal could lead to the non-renewal of a contract, while the TPD certification—which requires financial and time commitments—could be used as an administrative barrier to entry or retention.
The synthesis of these two policies creates a scenario where a teacher is constantly auditioning for their own job, with the “license to teach” acting as a precarious foundation that can be revoked or withheld.
Implications: How the Policy Shift Would Reshape the Profession
If the government’s proposed transformation is fully implemented, the teaching landscape in Kenya will undergo a tectonic shift.
The implications go far beyond the classroom; they touch upon the socio-economic stability of an entire generation of educators.
1. The Death of Job Security
For decades, the “permanent and pensionable” status has been the primary draw for the teaching profession, offering a stable, predictable path toward retirement.
Moving to a renewable contract model shifts the power dynamic entirely in favor of the employer.
Job security would no longer be a right of tenure but a reward for meeting, and likely exceeding, volatile performance indicators.
2. The Weaponization of Performance Appraisal
In a contract-based system, performance appraisal is no longer just a feedback mechanism; it is an employment weapon.
If renewal is tied to student grades, administrative compliance, and institutional targets, the environment in schools risks becoming toxic.
Teachers worry that metrics could be manipulated by school heads or political interests to push out senior, higher-earning staff in favor of lower-cost, more compliant, or newer employees. The potential for favoritism and victimization is immense.
3. Retirement and Pension Uncertainty
The shift to contracts creates a void in long-term financial planning. Current pensions are built on the assumption of a multi-decade, uninterrupted career.
If a teacher is forced out of the service after 15 years because they failed to secure a contract renewal, their retirement benefits—and their ability to contribute to a pension scheme—would be severely compromised.
The entire architecture of retirement for the teaching sector would need to be dismantled and rebuilt, creating profound uncertainty for older teachers.
4. The “Internship” Trap
The ongoing trend regarding Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers serves as a precursor to this broader shift.
By extending the contracts of interns rather than absorbing them into permanent roles, the TSC has provided a blueprint for the future.
The education sector is being slowly normalized to a contract-based labor force. This “normalization” makes the transition for the rest of the service appear more palatable to policymakers, even as it creates a permanent class of precarious workers within the system.
5. Industrial Unrest
Historically, the teaching unions (KNUT, KUPPET, and KUSNET) have acted as the fiercest defenders of tenure. Any attempt to dilute job security through mandatory TPD-tied contracts will almost certainly lead to a protracted industrial and legal battle.
The history of the TPD program itself is marked by initial resistance, and this new, combined threat of contractual employment is likely to catalyze an even more unified and militant response from the unions.
The Pedagogical Dilemma: Does High Pressure Equal High Achievement?
The government’s argument, championed by CS Ruku, is that performance contracts will end the “culture of impunity.”
The premise is that if teachers know their jobs are on the line, they will work harder, show up on time, and produce better results for learners.
However, pedagogical experts often warn against the “standardization of fear.” Teaching is not a factory-floor task; it is a relational and intellectual endeavor.
When teachers operate under the constant threat of non-renewal, the focus of the classroom often shifts from deep learning and creativity to “teaching to the test.”
If a teacher’s contract is tied to measurable learner outcomes, they have a professional incentive to focus solely on the metrics that appear on a scorecard.
This risks sidelining holistic education, character building, and the very values that the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) aims to foster.
By layering the TPD requirements (which are themselves burdensome) on top of the pressure of contract renewal, the government risks creating a “burned-out” teaching force that is more concerned with administrative survival than student inspiration.
Conclusion: A Balancing Act of Trust
The concerns raised by teachers are not simply a resistance to change; they are a fundamental question of what it means to be a public servant in Kenya.
While the need for accountability, professional growth, and the elimination of absenteeism is widely acknowledged by all stakeholders, the method of achieving these goals matters.
If the TSC and the Ministry of Public Service proceed with the transition to contractual employment, they must be prepared for the fallout.
The implementation of TPD modules, while technically sound as a professional development tool, cannot be divorced from the broader environment of labor relations.
Without transparent performance metrics, independent evaluation processes, and a guarantee of professional autonomy, the transition to a contract-based model risks alienating the very people responsible for the nation’s future.
For the teaching service to remain a viable and respected career, the government must ensure that any transformation policy does not become an instrument of instability.
Teachers are the backbone of the nation’s human capital development; treating them as transient contract workers could undermine the very quality of education the government seeks to improve.
As the Cabinet deliberates on the future of the civil service and the TSC continues to roll out its TPD framework, the eyes of the nation remain fixed on one question: Will the government choose to build a system of professional excellence through support and empowerment, or will it forge a system of compliance through insecurity? The answer will define the trajectory of Kenyan education for the next thirty years.
