Intern tutors' future uncertain after ruling

More than 44,000 intern teachers are facing an uncertain future following a Court of Appeal ruling that declared the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) internship programme unconstitutional, illegal and discriminatory.

The judgement has triggered fresh demands from the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), which is now pushing for the immediate conversion of the teachers’ contracts into permanent employment and compensating them for the period they served under an internship arrangement.

Kuppet argues that the teachers have worked for years under unfair conditions despite performing the same duties as their colleagues on permanent and pensionable (PnP) terms. 

Kuppet Secretary General Akelo Misori said the commission must urgently comply with the court decision and regularise the employment status of the thousands of intern teachers currently working in public schools.

“The only way out of the problem is to upgrade the teachers’ employment to permanent and pensionable terms and compensate them at appropriate scales for all work done since the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) judgement in 2024,” said Misori.

The Court of Appeal decision, delivered on February 27, 2026, upheld an earlier ruling by the ELRC, which had questioned the legality of the internship programme.

In the initial judgment delivered on April 17, 2025, Justice Byrum Ongaya ruled that TSC had violated teachers’ right to fair labour practices by hiring qualified teachers on inferior terms.

Justice Ongaya found that the Commission had unlawfully engaged trained and registered teachers under internship contracts while assigning them the same duties and responsibilities as teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.

The ruling effectively invalidated the legal framework that had been used to employ thousands of teachers across the country.

“Following the judgement by the Court of Appeal last week, the employment contracts of 44,000 intern teachers currently serving in the government have been declared unconstitutional, illegal, null and void,” said Misori.

The appellate court also upheld the ELRC’s finding that the Teachers Service Commission does not have the legal authority to hire teachers under internship terms.

“By upholding the judgement of the Employment and Labour Relations Court, the superior court has held unambiguously that internship contracts by the TSC have no place in the law. The TSC’s only power is to hire teachers on permanent and pensionable terms,” added Misori.

The internship programme had initially been introduced by the government as a temporary measure to address the chronic shortage of teachers in public schools while managing budgetary limitations.

Under the arrangement, teachers were employed on short-term contracts and paid monthly stipends rather than full salaries and employment benefits.

Education officials had argued that the approach would allow the government to deploy more teachers to classrooms while working within constrained financial resources.

However, teacher unions and education stakeholders have consistently criticised the model, describing it as exploitative.

They argued that the intern teachers carried the same workload as fully employed teachers but received significantly lower pay and lacked critical benefits such as medical cover, job security and pension contributions.

The scale of Kenya’s teacher shortage has been significant. Education authorities estimate that the country requires more than 116,000 additional teachers to adequately staff public schools across the country.

To help bridge the gap, the government allocated approximately Sh4.8 billion in 2025 to recruit 20,000 intern teachers.

Many of these teachers were deployed to support the rollout of junior secondary education under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), particularly in science and technical subjects where shortages have been most acute.

According to data presented by the TSC before Parliament, about 20,000 intern teachers are currently in their second year of service, while another 24,000 are in their first year.

The Court of Appeal ruling has now placed the future of these teachers in limbo. Misori said the judgment has exposed the legal vacuum under which the teachers have been operating.

“Effectively, the 44,000 intern teachers in service are operating in a legal vacuum. We urge the TSC to stop wasting time in court corridors and explore a realistic way out of the crisis,” he said.

The ruling now leaves the Teachers Service Commission with two difficult options: either absorb the teachers into permanent and pensionable employment or terminate their contracts altogether.

Appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee, chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly, TSC Director of Legal Services Calvin Anyuor acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and said the Commission is reviewing the implications of the judgment.

“On February 27, 2026, the Court of Appeal ruled that the internship programme in TSC is unconstitutional. The Commission is seized of the judgment and is undertaking consultations with relevant government agencies to work out modalities for implementation,” said Anyuor.

“The Court of Appeal declared the internship programme unconstitutional, discriminatory and illegal. It means only two things: either the Commission converts those teachers into PnP terms, or terminates their employment,” he added.

Members of Parliament have also raised concerns about the consequences of the ruling, particularly for schools that are already grappling with teacher shortages. Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gesairo questioned whether the Commission had been granted a transition period to comply with the court order.

“What were the effective dates? Were you given any grace period to ensure that every intern is now under PnP?” Gesairo asked.

Anyuor told the committee that the Commission had returned to court to seek a grace period that would allow the government time to mobilise resources and prepare a transition plan.

“We are in court seeking a grace period to allow the government to organise itself, mobilise the necessary resources and set clear timelines for implementation,” he said.