Teachers Set for New Salaries After Ruto Says SRC Has Approved New TSC CPG

MOMBASA: Teachers across Kenya are set for a new pay and promotion system after President William Ruto announced that the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) approved the Teachers Service Commission’s new Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) two days ago.

Speaking today on 12th November at the annual conference of the Kenya Comprehensive School Heads Association (KECSHA), which brings together primary school headteachers, Ruto said the new CPG, which replaces the 2018 career guidelines, is ready. The conference was held at the Sheikh Zayed Children Welfare Centre in Mombasa.

The announcement removes the biggest obstacle that had hung over the guidelines. The TSC had said job evaluation by the SRC was the final hurdle before the new structure could be attached to salary scales.

With the SRC now on board, teachers can expect the guidelines to move from proposal to implementation.

Addressing the primary school heads, the President said the long-awaited framework had cleared the SRC and was ready to be rolled out.

He had promised teachers when he met them at State House last year that he would deal with the matter, and the announcement in Mombasa is the clearest sign yet that the government intends to keep that promise.

For the heads in the hall, the news carries particular weight. Under the new framework, primary school heads are among those whose titles and grades change.

The announcement follows remarks by TSC Commissioner Timon Oyucho. He said the new CPG repeals the 2018 framework and takes effect in July 2027.

That statement was made days before Ruto was due to meet teachers at Kasarani, Nairobi, on Monday 5 October 2026 for the national World Teachers Day celebrations, where teachers had hoped for a final word from the President.

Oyucho’s remarks were unusually direct. Classroom teachers, he said, will be able to rise to the rank of chief principal without ever leaving the classroom.

“We shall have a classroom teacher having the grade of the chief principal in the same school with a chief principal,” he said.

He added that the administrator who is a chief principal and the classroom teacher who is a chief principal “shall earn the same salary.”

The only difference, he explained, will be an administrative allowance that does not count toward retirement benefits.

“The two teachers shall retire at the same level in terms of salary and therefore shall carry home the same retirement package,” he said.

Ruto’s announcement that the SRC has signed off now gives those assurances a firmer footing.

Several other points emerged from the Commissioner’s remarks:

He also said the aim is to identify “the potential in every teacher” and promote that teacher all the way.

He hinted that awards given at World Teachers Day events could translate into commensurate promotions.

The TSC’s stakeholder presentation of 9 June 2026 set out the structure behind these promises. The Commission says the 2018 CPG left pay differences between teachers, administrators and curriculum support officers.

It also says teachers with the same qualifications were treated differently, the scale was so tall that growth took too long, and professional and administrative work were mixed together.

The fix is to cut the number of levels across the service from 56 to 43. The biggest cuts are in secondary special needs education (from nine levels to six), primary (from eight to six), and Teacher Training Colleges (from ten to seven).

Junior and Senior School levels fall from nine to seven, and Curriculum Support Officers from four to three. Primary special needs education stays at five levels.

The lower rungs, such as Teacher 9 to 7 in primary and Teacher 8 to 6 in secondary, are “common cadre” grades. Everything above them is competitive.

Under the proposal, promotion above the common cadre will rest on merit and demonstrated excellence, not simply on years served. Merit will be measured in three ways.

First, there is classroom performance. Teachers who consistently produce excellent results from their learners are expected to be promoted.

Second, talent beyond the classroom counts. A teacher who excels in music and drama, sports or science fairs is expected to rise toward the top of the promotion lists.

Third, TSC recognition will carry weight. This includes the Wajibika awards, which recognise excellence in the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) process, and the Teacher of the Year Awards (TOYA) presented on World Teachers’ Day. Winners are expected to move up the ladder.

Going by the TSC’s own presentation, the likely beneficiaries are fairly clear.

Consistently high performers. A teacher whose learners post strong scores year after year now has a clear route up, and classroom excellence is no longer overshadowed by administrative posts.

Teachers recognised by the TSC. Wajibika and TOYA winners are set to climb the ladder, and teachers who take TPAD seriously and document their work well stand to benefit.

Teachers who want to stay in the classroom. Every category now has a “classroom growth” track alongside the administrative one. A teacher can advance to Teacher 5, 4, 3 and beyond without becoming a deputy principal or head.

Teachers with visible talent. Those who coach winning choirs, drama groups and sports teams, or lead science fair projects, will find their work easy to see and measure.

Primary diploma holders. Holders of the Diploma in Primary Teacher Education (DPTE) and the Diploma in Teacher Education, Pre-Primary and Primary (DTE PP&P) get a defined path. They enter at Teacher 8 and reach Teacher 7, the common cadre carrying the designation Senior Teacher (Primary). Today’s Senior Teacher 1 (C3) and Senior Teacher 2 (C2) merge into that single grade.

Primary heads and deputies. Primary leadership gets new titles at higher teacher grades. A Senior Headteacher (D1) becomes Teacher 4, Principal I. Headteachers and Deputy Headteachers 1 (both C5) become Teacher 5, Principal II. A Deputy Headteacher 2 (C4) becomes Teacher 6, Deputy Principal (Primary). Primary now has a Principal ladder that mirrors secondary, though whether pay follows depends on job evaluation.

Lower-placed holders of merged grades. Where two grades collapse into one, the holder of the lower grade tends to gain. Senior Master 4 (C4) joins Senior Master 3 (C5) at Teacher 5, and Deputy Principal 3 (D1) joins Deputy Principal 2 and Senior Masters 1 and 2 at Teacher 4 in secondary.

Secondary SNE teachers and staff in other cadres. Secondary special needs teachers face the sharpest cut in levels, so their climb is much shorter. TTC lecturers, KISE and KLB staff and curriculum support officers also get shorter ladders.

The same structure carries risks for some teachers.

Those who rely on seniority. Anyone who expected to move up simply by waiting their turn above the common cadre will find the system works differently. Long service alone will not carry them.

Teachers with average results and appraisals. A teacher with no standout learner scores, no TPAD recognition and no TSC award may struggle against colleagues who have all three.

Teachers without a co-curricular profile. Those who teach less visible subjects, or work in schools with few resources for music, drama, sports or science fairs, may find it hard to stand out.

Teachers in tough school environments. Strong scores are easier to achieve in well-resourced schools. Teachers in under-resourced and rural schools, with large classes and few books, may struggle to match them through no fault of their own. Unions are likely to press the TSC on how fairness will be ensured.

Higher-placed holders of merged grades. A teacher who held a distinct, higher grade may now share a level with former juniors. Examples include Senior Master 3 and 4, Deputy Principal 2 and 3, and Primary Senior Teacher 1 and 2. If job evaluation places the merged grade lower than they hoped, they could lose out.

Primary diploma holders hoping to climb quickly. The guaranteed climb stops at Teacher 7. Everything from Teacher 6 upward is competitive.

Anyone chasing a top post. With fewer levels, competition for the top grades will be fiercer, and only a few can be Chief Principal, Senior Principal or Principal. Primary SNE teachers, whose levels stay at five, gain nothing structurally.

The structure also settles how qualifications are treated. In primary, a PTE certificate holder enters at Teacher 9, and Teacher 8 is both the entry grade for diploma holders and the common cadre for certificate holders.

A certificate holder who moves up to Teacher 8 will therefore share a grade with a fresh diploma graduate, which may cause tension.

In secondary, Teacher 8 is the entry for diploma holders. Teacher 7 is the entry for degree holders and the common cadre for diploma holders, while Teacher 6 is the common cadre for degree holders.

In Teacher Training Colleges, the entry grade for degree holders in the new CBE specialised areas is Teacher 7.

Degree holders start a rung higher than diploma holders, which addresses the old complaint about unequal treatment, though some diploma holders may see the gap as a loss.

The proposal does not show a separate primary entry grade for degree holders. Teachers should watch how the final CPG treats primary teachers who upgrade their qualifications.

Teachers are still waiting to learn how salaries will actually be paid under the new rules. The TSC has said the CPG is to be folded into the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement in July 2027, when teachers are due a salary increment.

That timing makes grade placement critical, because it will determine where each teacher lands when the increment takes effect.

According to the TSC’s way forward, the CPG and job descriptions go to the SRC, which then conducts job evaluation. A clinic on the results follows, and the TSC then communicates the results and the financial implications to teachers.

Ruto’s announcement indicates the first stage has been cleared, but the details of the grades and salary scales have not yet been made public.

Oyucho’s promise that a classroom chief principal and an administrator chief principal will earn the same basic salary and retire with the same package is likely to be tested closely.

Teachers will want to know what the administrative allowance will be worth and how it will be paid. They will also want clarity on how current grades map onto the new ones, especially where grades have merged.

Several issues will decide whether the new framework wins teachers’ confidence:

Ruto’s announcement in Mombasa suggests the long wait over the framework is nearing an end. For teachers, the question now is less whether the new CPG is coming than what exactly it contains and what it pays.

The answers should become clear as the TSC publishes the final guidelines and the job evaluation results, and the teachers’ unions are likely to scrutinise both closely before July 2027.