The 20,000 teacher interns whose contracts expire in December this year will be converted to permanent terms in January next year, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury John Mbadi has said.
Mr Mbadi told the National Assembly Education Committee that, despite a lack of budgetary allocation in this financial year for employing the teachers on permanent terms, the government is committed to ensuring that they are absorbed when their contracts expire.
“This is something that the President [William Ruto] has pronounced himself on and it’s now my responsibility to ensure it is done next year,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi was responding to a question from Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo, who wanted to know the fate of the teachers when their current contracts expire in December this year, since there was no budgetary allocation.
“Are there plans to absorb these teachers permanently or at least renew their contracts, which are coming to an end in December?” Mr Gisairo asked the CS.
Mr Mbadi assured the committee that, despite a lack of budgetary allocation for the exercise, the government still plans to employ more teachers to respond to the rising number of students in schools.
“There was no allocation for this, but it is now my duty to look for money and employ these teachers permanently in January. We will ensure it is done,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi, who was appearing before the committee alongside his Education counterpart, Julius Ogamba, said the government will require at least Sh5.4 billion to employ the teachers on permanent terms.
The Treasury CS also informed the committee that in this financial year, the government has allocated Sh2.34 billion to cater for the recruitment of more intern teachers beginning January 2026.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters in Upper Hill, Nairobi.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
He, however, decried that the government is operating in a tight fiscal environment which is exuberated by expenditure pressure for critical intervention in security and emergency interventions, which are unavoidable.
“Despite these, the government has prioritized allocations to the education sector. For instance, in the 2025/2026 budget, the education sector has been allocated Sh702.7 billion making it the highest recipient of the funds,” Mr Mbadi told the committee.
The Cabinet Secretary told MPs that the funds will go towards support of various educational levels which includes primary, junior school, senior secondary, TVET and university institutions as well as teacher salaries and infrastructure.
“Despite this, we recognize underfunding in some of the programmes under the education sector which will be addressed should revenue performance improve,” Mr Mbadi said.
Mr Mbadi assured the committee that the government will continue to provide resources for teachers’ recruitment and retooling of the infrastructure to implement the Competency Based Curriculum.
In this financial year, Mr Mbadi said the government has allocated Sh7.68 billion and Sh1.27 billion for teachers and TVET instructors in order to address the teacher shortage.
He told off those calling on the government to reduce the huge expenditure on the security sector in order to fund education.
“I see people asking why we should continue spending on security as if we are at war. I want to tell them that without security, we cannot even do exams in this country. So, it plays an important role,” Mr Mbadi said.
“If you ask me if we are at war, I will tell you yes, we must keep Al-shabaab off our country. The neighbouring countries are also not safe, except Tanzania,” he added.
Appearing before the committee in May this year, the Teachers Service Commission told the lawmakers that they will not be able to hire the 20,000 teacher interns hired by the government this year due to a lack of budgetary provision.
The commission’s finance director finance Cheptumo Ayabei and director for legal, Cavin Anyuor, told MPs they had engaged the National Treasury during the preparation of the 2025/26 budget to ensure the money is available but the same was not factored in the 2025-26 budget.
