TSC Introduces Mandatory 5-Year License Renewal Through New Teacher Professional Development Programme

All Teachers Service Commission teachers currently in the system or with a licence will be required to renew their teaching licence every five years from now on under new proposals that are currently up for consideration.

New Teacher Professional Development Programme

According to Acting TSC CEO Evaleen Mitei, licence renewals will be sorted out through the new Teacher Professional Development programme - which the TSC will be offering to teachers free of charge.

Mitei explained that the programme was created alongside teachers and other education sector folk to ensure it would be relevant to real-life and actually work.

" The point of the TPD is to improve teachers' skills. We want teaching to be like any other job - you need to keep your skills up to date. So the five year program will be a must-do if you want to renew your licence," Mitei says.

Renewal is Linked to Programme Completion

You will need to have completed the TPD programme over each five year cycle in order to renew your licence. Mitei makes it clear that this is all about keeping teaching up to standard - making sure teachers are aware of the latest educational best practice and bringing the profession in line with other professions that need to stay certified.

This is just one part of a whole raft of changes that are being proposed in the draft Teachers Service Commission (Amendment) Regulations, 2026.

How This Will Affect People Who Teach Overseas

Mitei points out that Kenya had a Teacher Mobility Policy to help teachers find work abroad. However a lot of teachers have found themselves in a tricky situation, because Kenya hasnt had a proper teacher licence renewal program that ties in with continuous professional development - so this new policy is a direct response to that gap.

A New Digital Platform For Teachers to Learn From Home

The digital TPD platform that the TSC is developing will make it easy for teachers and school administrators all over the country to access learning modules from their own homes - saving a lot of money that they might have spent on travel to get to professional development courses.

Classroom teachers and school administrators will both have access to their own specific modules, tailored to their jobs. The classroom modules will be all about making sure the teachers have the best possible teaching skills, while the admin modules will cover things like leadership, finance, governance and school administration for principals and deputy principals.

What's Going On More Generally

At the same time as all this, the TSC is reviewing its teacher staffing norms to make sure that they align with the Competency-Based Education requirements. And the Commission is also rolling out the Teacher Induction, Mentorship and Coaching framework to support new teachers while continuing to help experienced teachers develop too.

The TSC is also continuing to implement the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) system for classroom teachers and performance contracts for school heads - which will help improve accountability and results across the whole education sector in Kenya.

New Career Paths Coming

These licence reforms tie in with other changes that are coming to the way teachers get promoted - under the 2026 Career Progression Guidelines (CPG). This means it will now take 18 years, not 30, for teachers to be eligible to reach the top of their profession. There will be separate career paths for classroom teachers and those in leadership roles - and a single grading system fromTeacher 9 (entry level) all the way up to Teacher 1 (top job).

All of this puts together to represent the biggest shake-up of the education system that the TSC has had in decades.