The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has opened 9,159 recruitment vacancies to replace teachers who have exited the service through natural attrition—offering a timely lifeline to schools that have been struggling, term after term, to keep classrooms running smoothly.
The announcement, quietly posted on the TSC website and seen by freekcsepastpapers.com, immediately set off a buzz in staffrooms, WhatsApp groups, and county education offices across the country. After months of warnings about an escalating staffing crisis, many are calling this the most significant recruitment window of the year.
All advertised positions will be filled on permanent and pensionable terms, signaling the government’s intention to reinforce a workforce that has been stretched thin.
A closer look at the numbers reveals where the pressure points lie:
- 7,065 vacancies are in primary schools
- 12 positions are earmarked for Junior Secondary Schools (JSS)
- 2,082 slots will go to secondary schools
And in keeping with TSC’s digital transition, applicants have barely days to act.
“Interested and qualified candidates should submit their applications online through the Teachers Service Commission’s website on or before December 8, 2025, at midnight,” the notice reads. Detailed allocations per county and school are also available on the portal.
See the Vacancies
JUNIOR SCHOOLS DISTRIBUTION OF VACANCIES NATURAL ATTRITION NOVEMBER 2025
SENIOR SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION OF VACANCIES NATURAL ATTRITION – NOVEMBER 2025
PRIMARY SCHOOLS DISTRIBUTION OF VACANCIES NATURAL ATTRITION -NOVEMBER 25
But this latest announcement is not happening in a vacuum. It follows a worrying pattern that has emerged over the last three years—one that paints a sobering picture of a sector in urgent need of sustained investment.
In December 2024, TSC advertised 8,707 attrition replacement jobs. Another report showed that 8,018 teachers left the service between June 2022 and January 2023. Earlier this year, the commission flagged 2,014 teaching gaps in May 2025, followed by projections that a record 10,245 teachers would exit the payroll by June 2025.
The trend is unmistakable: classrooms are emptying faster than they can be refilled.
According to the TSC, the new round of recruitment aims to stabilize learning in public schools after waves of retirements, resignations, and deaths depleted staff numbers. Yet even with the fresh hiring, the elephant in the room remains impossible to ignore.
Former TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia had sounded the alarm long before she left office. She warned that junior and senior secondary schools are already operating with a deficit of 98,261 teachers, a gap she said could widen dramatically when senior secondary schools officially launch in 2026 under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
“We need Sh5 billion annually to promote teachers and prevent stagnation in their careers. We have over 300,000 trained but unemployed teachers in our register. The biggest issue is the budget. With the Sh1 billion we currently receive, we can only recruit about 6,000 teachers,” she told the Education Committee.
And while permanent jobs remain the gold standard, TSC is also preparing to hire 24,000 intern teachers in January 2026 to cushion schools from the expected pressure as they reopen. The interns will mainly plug glaring shortages in junior and senior secondary schools—levels most affected by the CBC transition.
But even this “solution” has raised difficult questions.
The contracts of the current cohort of 20,000 interns expire in December, stirring fresh concerns about continuity and possible disruptions when schools resume.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary-General Collins Oyuu did not mince his words. He described the growing dependence on intern teachers as “a stopgap measure” forced by financial constraints—nothing more.
“These teachers are out there earning as little as Sh6,000, yet they perform full teaching duties. This is not sustainable. We only accept this arrangement temporarily because there is no alternative,” he said, adding that the number of unemployed teachers now rivals the number currently in the profession.
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima echoed the warning with even sharper criticism. He accused the government of “casualising” the teaching profession by extending temporary contracts rather than absorbing teachers permanently.
“There is no law allowing interns to serve beyond 12 months. The agreement is clear: once an intern completes a year, they should be absorbed. Moving goalposts only compromises teacher welfare and undermines education quality,” he said.
As the country inches closer to the 2026 CBC rollout, the question becomes unavoidable:
Can the education system withstand this perfect storm of shortages, budget gaps, and policy tensions?
For now, the 9,159 vacancies offer a glimmer of hope—one that thousands of jobless teachers and overcrowded classrooms are desperately counting on.
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