President William Ruto has announced that intern teachers will only be absorbed on permanent and pensionable (P&P) terms after completing a full two-year internship, therefore dashing expectations of confirmation before January.
Speaking during a media interview with local media stations in Kitui on Thursday Ruto reiterated that it is a government policy for interns, including Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers, to serve for two years before they can be considered for permanent employment.
” I want to assure all teachers serving under internship that their confirmation into permanent and pensionable will be done at the end of the two years contract, without any negotiations ”
About 20,000 JSS intern teachers who were recruited in November 2024 and deployed to schools in January 2025 are on one-year contracts that lapse at the end of December 2025.
Majority of the interns have been banking on earlier signals from the Treasury and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that they would be confirmed on P&P terms by January 2026 after one year of service.
The president’s latest position now points to a longer wait, with the current cohort likely to remain on internship terms through a second year, unless the policy is reviewed.
For months, JSS intern teachers have been operating in a fog of conflicting messages.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) earlier ruled that engaging fully qualified, registered teachers as “interns” amounted to unfair labour practice and discrimination, piling legal pressure on TSC to regularise their terms.
Interns across the country have staged protests, arguing that they shoulder full teaching loads yet earn stipends without the benefits attached to permanent posts.
In Kericho, JSS intern teachers recently took to the streets demanding that TSC comply with the court ruling and confirm them on permanent and pensionable terms.
The agitated teachers said they had not received formal communication from the commission even as their contracts approach expiry, and urged the government to hasten confirmation so they can enjoy better medical benefits under the new Social Health Authority (SHA) scheme.
Despite the court decision, TSC secured temporary relief after appellate judges suspended orders that required immediate conversion of all interns to P&P, arguing that the commission lacked the funds to onboard all intern teachers at once.
Ruto’s insistence on the two-year internship rule now sits at the intersection of that legal battle, the unions’ demands, and the government’s tight fiscal space.
The government has repeatedly pointed to the budget as proof of its commitment to eventually confirm interns.
In the 2025/26 budget, Treasury set aside Sh13.4 billion specifically to facilitate the absorption of JSS intern teachers, part of a Sh358.2 billion allocation to TSC within a broader Sh702.7 billion education budget.
The allocation was billed as a major step toward moving “thousands” of JSS interns to permanent and pensionable terms.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok recently announced plans to recruit 24,000 more teachers by the end of the year.
The commission faces a funding shortfall of around Sh3.5 billion just to confirm the 20,000 newest JSS interns whose one-year contracts end on 31 December 2025.