President William Ruto has directed the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to ensure that no teacher serves on a contract basis for more than two years, promising an automatic transition to permanent and pensionable terms.
Speaking during a national education conference in Naivasha on Thursday, May 7, 2026, Ruto stated that the intern teachers were recruited on contract terms, with the agreement that after two years, they would be automatically transitioned to permanent and pensionable terms.
“We employ teachers on contract for two years with a firm commitment that after the 2 years contract, they will transition without any other interview or whatever, they will transition automatically to permanent and pensionable,” Ruto stated.
How the contract was signed
Ruto explained that the current system is a compromise designed to solve three problems simultaneously: the lack of teachers in schools, high unemployment among teachers, and the government’s limited financial resources.
Ruto claimed that he was not aware of any intern teachers who have remained in service beyond the two years, tasking TSC with determining whether any teachers have not been absorbed.
“I want to ask the TSC; I hope there are no teachers who have served more than two years as interns because that is not what I bargained for. Any teacher can only serve for 2 years on contract after which they transition automatically,” Ruto said.
At the same time, President Ruto indicated that the government could consider further reviewing the duration of internship programmes in the future, depending on the prevailing fiscal conditions.
He noted that if the country’s financial position improves, the internship period could gradually be reduced from the current two years to one year.
“As the situation improves, we are now doing a contract for two years. Maybe along the way we will reduce it to one year, and then we will see when our situation improves, we can put more resources and be able to hire all our teachers on a permanent and pensionable basis from the beginning,” Ruto said.
JSS prolonged strike
This comes following a series of prolonged demonstrations by intern teachers, calling for the immediate permanent employment of all 44,000 educators currently serving under the internship programme.
The protesters argued that the stipends they receive are far too low in comparison to the responsibilities they are expected to handle within schools.
Speaking in a presser on Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in Nairobi, the tutors have vowed to continue with their demonstrations as they intensify their push for confirmation to permanent and pensionable terms, even as learning disruptions persist in schools for a second consecutive week.
The tutors argue that their situation has worsened amid prolonged uncertainty over their employment status and what they describe as unfair labour conditions.
