A total of 20,000 junior secondary school (JSS) teachers who were employed on a one year internship term in January this year will be confirmed on permanent and pensionable (pnp) terms.
This was revealed by the Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi who said the teachers will be converted to permanent terms in January 2026.
Mr Mbadi, who was appearing before the committee alongside his Education counterpart, Julius Ogamba, said the government will require at least Sh5.4 billion to employ the teachers on permanent terms.
The Treasury CS also informed the committee that in this financial year, the government has allocated Sh2.34 billion to cater for the recruitment of more intern teachers beginning January 2026.
He, however, decried that the government is operating in a tight fiscal environment which is exuberated by expenditure pressure for critical intervention in security and emergency interventions, which are unavoidable.
“Despite these, the government has prioritized allocations to the education sector. For instance, in the 2025/2026 budget, the education sector has been allocated Sh702.7 billion making it the highest recipient of the funds,” Mr Mbadi told the committee.
The Cabinet Secretary told MPs that the funds will go towards support of various educational levels which includes primary, junior school, senior secondary, TVET and University institutions as well as teachers salaries and infrastructure.
“Despite this, we recognize underfunding in some of the programmes under the education sector which will be addressed should revenue performance improve,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi assured the committee that the government will continue to provide resources for teachers’ recruitment and retooling of the infrastructure to implement the Competency Based Curriculum.
In this financial year, Mr Mbadi said the government has allocated Sh7.68 billion and Sh1.27 billion for teachers and TVET instructors in order to address the teacher shortage.
He told off those calling on the government to reduce the hge expenditure on the security sector inorder to fund education.
Appearing before the committee in May this year, the Teachers Service Commission told the lawmakers that they will not be able to hire the 20,000 teacher interns hired by the government this year due to a lack of budgetary provision.
The commission’s finance director finance Cheptumo Ayabei and director for legal, Cavin Anyuor, told MPs they had engaged the National Treasury during the preparation of the 2025/26 budget to ensure the money is available but the same was not factored in the 2025-26 budget.
The JSS intern teachers will now only be required to avail their national ID during TSC verification exercise.
TSC will advertise the 20,000 vacancies but JSS intern teachers will have automatic absorption into the pnp payroll.
