The 20,000 Intern Teachers, who were hoping to have their terms changed to Permanent and Pensionable this year,  can breath a sigh of relief after the Education of the National Assembly promised to intervene.

A budget shortfall had thrown the future of over 20,000 intern teachers into disarray, after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) revealed it lacks the funds to absorb them into the permanent workforce.

Despite their recruitment in the current financial year, the teachers would remain in limbo following a staggering Sh 3.5 billion deficit that has crippled the Commission’s capacity to regularize their employment.

This disclosure before the National Assembly Education Committee raised concerns demanding on the fate of the interns who had hoped their temporary roles would usher them into long-term teaching positions under government payroll.

TSC Director of Finance, Cheptumo Ayabei, confirmed the Commission is not in a position to convert the intern teachers to permanent status due to the financial crunch.

He disclosed that while the intention to regularize their employment still stands, the immediate lack of funds means they will remain as interns for an extended period potentially for up to two more years pending further instructions or financial allocation.

“As we speak that funding has not been provided so these teachers will continue to serve for the next two years or otherwise advised so there’s provision to recruit these teachers but we are going to recruit 20,000 teachers this year,” said Ayabei.

Additionally, a court ruling had given a ruling , requiring that intern teachers be confirmed within a year. However, given the prevailing financial limitations, Ayabei noted that the best-case scenario would be to fulfill this requirement by December 2025 within the timeline of the 2025/2026 financial year.

Baringo North MP Benjamin Makilap. questioned the rationale behind planning to recruit another batch of intern teachers, despite a growing backlog of those yet to be absorbed.

“When you were recruiting the teachers was it one year or two years because you can’t bring before us a budget that you want to recruit new intern teachers yet there’s a backlog,”Makilap added.

“I know there’s a court ruling and the best we have now is a maximum of one year, we need to confirm the existing intern teacher by December which is within the financial year 2025/2026,”he stressed.

Recruitment of teachers over the age of 45

MPs raised questions about inclusivity in the recruitment process particularly the neglect of trained teachers over the age of 45, who remain jobless despite their qualifications.

Teso South MP Mary Emase challenged the Commission to consider affirmative action for these overlooked professionals, many of whom are nearing retirement without ever having served in the public sector.

“I don’t know if there’s an affirmative action to recruit teachers who are over 45 years of age and they haven’t been absorbed even as interns because these are teachers who have been trained and are already approaching retirement age and have not been employed,” said Emase.

The concern was echoed by Education Committee Chair Julius Melly, who criticized the apparent age bias in TSC’s hiring policies saying the socio-economic burden borne by older, unemployed teachers, many of whom have families to support.

“We have a lot of aging teachers’ population who haven’t been recruited into the system and many of them have family responsibilities. You can’t say that you will not recruit a teacher aged 45 years just because of his age, any teacher can be recruited up to 2 years of recruitment,” noted the committee chair.

MPs called for more deliberate and data-driven recruitment strategies that factor in age as a critical element. Luanda MP Dick Maungu proposed that the Commission prioritize older teachers for employment as a way to redress years of exclusion and neglect.

“Why don’t you do a target recruitment based on age, if an individual is above 45 years, it will be easier you will morph them up… These aged teachers are actually Kenyans and they are perishing, we can actually set the minimum age of recruitment so that we conclusively deal with this matter,” said Maungu.

Makilap urged the TSC to release comprehensive data on all registered teachers. He argued that having access to this information is critical to understanding the scale of the problem and the resources needed to resolve it.

“The TSC should give us data of registered teachers with registration certificate by TSC so that we can quantify the numbers and know the amount of resources that will be required to recruit these teachers,” stated Makilap.

Ayabei reiterated that the conversion of intern teachers into permanent roles is dependent on the availability of funds. He stressed that the TSC had engaged the National Treasury but received no financial room to support conversions due to overarching fiscal constraints.

“The conversion of teachers is all based on funding, if we get the funding, we convert them into permanent and pensionable. We did engage National Treasury and because of fiscal space and constraints, we were not given provision for conversion,” he affirmed.

In the upcoming financial year,the TSC is also grappling with an additional Sh 5.71 Billion which will affect the funding of the medical insurance cover and the financial requirement for the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Director Legal, labour and Industrial action Cavin Anyuor revealed that the National Treasury has remained non-committal on the funding mechanism of the July 2025 to June 2029 with the current framework set to lapse in June.

“The area which has not been funded is the CBA, although we are still negotiating the CBA, but we have written to the National Treasury to consider, because the CBA that we have is ending on 30th June 2025 and a new one should commence of first July ,”Anyuor stated.

Education Committee’s Intervention.

In a bid to resolve the crisis, the Education Committee Chair Julius Melly has promised to push until there is ‘adequate budgetary allocation to the education sector’.

“These reductions are unacceptable. If implemented, they risk undermining access to quality education, reversing the progress we have made as a country in reducing the cost burden on parents and promoting inclusive, affordable education.” Says Melly.

Among the proposed cuts are: Ksh. 1.2 billion from Free Primary Education capitation and Ksh. 14.75 billion from Junior Secondary School capitation.

The proposed 2025/2026 budget has also seen a complete removal of Ksh. 12.5 billion previously allocated for national examinations and invigilation.

A further Ksh. 600 million meant for quality assurance has been slashed with significant reduction of funds for the school feeding programme in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs).

“We want to assure Kenyans and all stakeholders that the Education Committee will continue to advocate for adequate funding in the sector. We will not relent until every child has access to quality, affordable education across the country.” Melly promises.