At least 18,000 junior secondary school (JSS) intern teachers will be employed by December 2025 for a one year internship term.
Already the parliamentary budget and appropriations committee approved allocation for the employment of the teachers in the 2025 – 2026 financial year.
Both Diploma and graduate teachers will be employed to address staffing crisis in grade 7, 8 and 9 which currently have 1:1 teacher to class ratio.
TSC seeks shs. 382.3 billion budget approval for teacher recruitment, salaries and salary increment, promotions among other things.
In the budget TSC also got sh1.8 billion approved for ensuring 46,000 intern teachers converted to permanent and pensionable terms in January get their salaries uninterrupted throughout the financial year.
TSC also got additional funds in the budget to employ 18,000 teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
The mass recruitment of the 18,000 pnp teachers will be for both primary and secondary schools.
A total of 20,000 JSS intern teachers recruited in November were posted to schools in January for one year internship term.
In the recent replacement at least 1,645 of the JSS intern teachers secured replacement jobs in secondary schools and TSC plans to replace them.
TSC is facing serious teacher shortage and currently requires a total of 72,422 teachers to address the staffing crisis in JSS.
TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia said the Commission requires a total of 149,350 teachers to handle Grade 7, 8 and 9.
Macharia said currently TSC has employed 76,928 teachers in junior secondary representing 51.5% of the requirement.
These are the 20,000 JSS interns. 39,550 JSS teachers who were first recruited on internship terms but have since been confirmed.
8,378 P1 teachers who were deployed to JSS in 2023 and 2024 and 9,000 JSS teachers recruited on permanent and pensionable terms.
Macharia said TSC has so far retooled a total of 229,292 teachers on CBC and CBA since April 2019.
She said a total of 60,642 JSS teachers have been retooled from May 2023 to November 2024.
TSC plans to deploy 6,000 PTE teachers to JSS in April to help address the teacher shortage
The Teacher Internship Programme is a one year programme meant to equip and sustain competencies of persons entering the teaching service.
The programme targets unemployed registered teachers to be assigned to learning institutions where their teaching experience will be enhanced through mentorship, coaching and exposure to practical teaching experience.
The internship period will be for twelve months though majority of the recent intern teachers have served for two years.
Teacher internship is not a remunerative engagement. However, interns attached to Junior Secondary schools will be eligible for a monthly stipend of Kshs. 20,000/=.
The stipend will be paid subject to statutory deductions like NHIF, Housing levy, and NSSF where applicable.
On successful completion of the Internship Programme, teacher interns will be awarded a certificate.
In this years scoresheet for recruitment of teachers on permanent and pensionable terms, TSC awarded 50 marks to teachers were served on internship term despite the period served.
Application for TSC internship shall strictly be done online.
To be eligible to serve as intern in primary school one must be a holder of a PTE or DPTE certificate and is registered with TSC.
Those in junior school must have at least a Diploma and C+ in KCSE with C+ in two teaching subjects. They must also be registered with TSC.
During verification/ interviews, applicants shall be required to produce the following: –
i) A copy of Teacher Registration Certificate/print-out from TSC online portal as evidence of registration as a teacher;
ii) A copy of National Council for Persons with Disability (NCPWD) card (where applicable);
iii) A copy of the National Identity Card (ID) or Passport;
iv) Two (2) colour passport size photographs;
v) A copy of National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) card;
vi) A copy of Kenya Revenue Authority Personal Identification Number (KRA PIN).
Interns attached to primary schools will earn a monthly stipend of sh 15,000 while those in junior school will get sh 20,000.
On successful completion of the Internship Programme, teacher interns will be awarded an internship certificate.