Teachers employed on internship terms in junior schools have vowed to paralyze learning when schools reopen for second term.
Schools are reopening on 27th April but the teachers say they will not report back until their demands are met.
The nationwide strike is slated to start on 27th April to push TSC to convert the teachers to permanent and pensionable (pnp) terms.
There are a total of 44,000 junior school teachers currently working under TSC internship programme.
These are 20,000 teachers recruited for a one year internship contract running from 1st January to 31st December 2025 but their contracts were renewed for another one year starting running from 1st January to 31st December 2026.
TSC has already sought funding in the July budget to confirm the teachers to pnp after the end of their contract.
The Commission also hired another 24,000 junior school intern teachers for one year contract that run from 1st January to 31st December 2026.
However the TSC internship programme received a major setback after a Court of Appeal declared the programme illegal.
Appearing before the Senate on 11th March, Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba admitted that the Court ruling has implicated government plans on teacher recruitment.
He said the government is studying the court ruling to determine its legal and financial implications.
“It is true the Court of Appeal has determined that the policy of internship is null and void,” said Ogamba.
“TSC and the Ministry are studying the ruling and are in the process of coming up with steps that are going to be undertaken to ensure that we abide by that court ruling,” he added.
The court had declared the TSC internship programme null and void, stating that it can only be applied to trainee teachers.
It argued that the teachers termed as ‘intern’ are fully trained and registered teachers and can only be employed as such without discrimination.
A section of 35,505 junior school teachers previously employed as interns had sought court intervention to stop the programme as they demanded compensation for the days worked under internship terms.
However the junior school intern teachers are likely to split after TSC proposed to confirm the 20,000 by end of this year.
A significant number of teachers are likely to report back to their stations as they look forward for confirmation at the end of the year.
CS Ogamba has confirmed that the government is working to absorb all teachers previously employed under the internship programme into permanent and pensionable terms, in line with the court ruling that declared their previous employment conditions unfair and discriminatory.
He said the state already has Sh6 billion available for the exercise and is seeking an additional Sh23 billion to complete the process.
Speaking in Kisii county on Saturday to vernacular media stations ahead of President William Ruto’s Gusii development tour, Ogamba said the absorption of intern teachers would be carried out gradually, depending on the availability of resources.
“We have no choice but to have them. The thing is we have to look for resources from somewhere for them to be confirmed; it’s just a question of how we stagger that process,” Ogamba said.
“We have Sh6 billion, and the teachers to confirm are 20,000, so we are looking for Sh23 point something billion to confirm the rest.”
The government, through the Teachers Service Commission, is also seeking to hire 16,000 new teachers for junior and senior secondary schools.
The recruitment is part of a broader plan to address teacher shortages that have been exacerbated by the rollout of the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system.
As part of its 2026-27 financial year budget proposals, the TSC has outlined plans to convert 20,000 intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms, in addition to hiring new teachers.
Pressure to regularise the employment status of intern teachers intensified following a March 14, 2026 ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which found the TSC’s internship programme illegal and unconstitutional.
The court held that the hiring of 44,000 trained teachers as interns was discriminatory and directed that they be employed on permanent and pensionable terms.
Ogamba said the government is already working with the National Treasury and the TSC to ensure compliance with the ruling, alongside recruiting 16,000 more teachers under similar conditions.
“That is being done. There is a team, as we speak, working with Treasury and TSC. I know there are discussions at an advanced stage to perhaps agree on a period within which to complete the confirmation. We cannot employ them as interns because the court nullified the process,” he said.
The CS emphasised that the conversion of intern teachers to permanent staff is unavoidable as the government seeks to meet the globally recommended teacher-to-student ratio of 1:25.
He noted that the internship programme had already helped improve staffing levels, reducing the ratio from 1:45 to 1:29. The planned recruitment of an additional 16,000 teachers is expected to lower the ratio further.
“We now have to put our heads together to find a solution,” Ogamba said.
At the same time, the CS highlighted ongoing efforts to align teacher skills with the demands of the CBE curriculum.
He said more than 220,000 teachers have so far been retooled to handle the new system, particularly in technical subjects such as metalwork.
Following the transition of the pioneer CBE cohort to Grade 10, Ogamba said about 60 per cent of learners have been placed in STEM pathways, while 38 to 39 per cent are pursuing social sciences. About 10 per cent have opted for sports science.
“These numbers are helping us analyse what is missing so that we do not train teachers in subjects that are not in high demand. We are harmonising training to match the number of teachers required,” he said.
