The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has followed a directive that was issued by President William Ruto not to promote intern teachers after one year of service. This directive has impacted 20,000 junior school intern teachers who were hoping to be promoted to permanent and pensionable terms starting from January 2026.
Instead, the TSC has renewed the contracts of these junior school interns for an additional period of one year.
According to TSC Acting chief executive officer Eveleen Mitei, the teachers will now serve an additional period that will commence on January 1, 2026 and end on December 31, 2026.
“The Commission approved the extension of contracts for all serving junior school teacher interns for a further 12 months, with effect from 1st January 2026 to 31st December 2026… All interns shall remain in their current stations, subject to their formal confirmation of acceptance,” Ms Mitei said.
According to the directive by President Ruto, intern teachers will only be eligible for promotion to permanent and pensionable terms after serving for a period of two years. The president claimed in November that after the two-year period, these teachers will qualify for an automatic absorption into the TSC’s payroll for permanent and pensionable.
The president claimed that this directive is meant to assist the government in meeting its staffing targets while providing jobless interns with a structured career pathway.
Following these renewals, the TSC has gone on to ask interns to formally accept or reject their renewed contracts through their TSC county directors.
“Interns accepting the offer must sign the acceptance section of the contract and submit a valid Personal Accident Cover for the new engagement period,” said Ms Mitei.
The Commission has directed the county directors to send the interns their offer letters by latest December 20, 2025 and to have the acceptance and rejections signed by the impacted teachers submitted to the TSC by January 23, 2026.
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