The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has said that intern teachers do not have a guarantee that their jobs will be converted into permanent and pensionable jobs.
The TSC said that while teachers working under the internship are paid by the Commission, their roles primarily offer teaching practicing but do not offer guaranteed absorption into the roll of permanent and pensionable jobs.
This declaration comes barely days after the TSC announced that it was adhering to 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 Commission renewed the contracts of these junior school interns for an additional period of one year.
According to 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.
New York Times: How Ruto’s family, allies make profits from sending Kenyans to Saudi
In addition, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba told a local newspaper that that the Ministry of Education has recruited 56,000 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms since the inception of Junior School.
He further added that the Ministry had also enlisted 10,097 teachers from primary level to the Junior School level which currently has 20,000 intern teachers, with an additional 24,000 interns set to be recruited in 2026.
