JSS interns to down tools in January over contract extensions

Junior secondary school intern teachers have declared that they will not renew their internship contracts in January. Their current contracts will expire by the end of this month. This is even as the Teachers Service Commission issued a new circular extending their internship contracts for another year. 

The circular, dated November 27, reveals that all serving JSS interns will continue under internship from January 1, 2026, to December 31, just like their counterparts who were confirmed earlier this year. 

The Commission instructed county officials to immediately issue extension offers and ensure that interns either accept or decline the renewed terms. 

However, Nehemiah Kipkorir, the chairman of the Kenya junior school intern teachers, stated that the contracts were annual and that they will not be returning to class in January under the internship contract. 

The intern teachers say that during a meeting with President William Ruto in Statehouse on September 13, he promised them permanent and pensionable employment at the lapse of their contracts. 

“If our contracts are not renewed, then we are not going back to class in January. This is a clear violation of our contracts; the courts have already pronounced themselves that the internship programme is illegal, so we cannot continue engaging in an illegality,” Kipkorir said. 

He spoke when a section of the intern teachers staged a demonstration in Nairobi on Tuesday to demand their confirmation.   

The Employment and Labour Relations Court in April 2024 declared the internship programme illegal but later set the judgement aside to allow the case to be heard and determined after an appeal by TSC. 

Kipkorir further notes that the teachers are subjected to teaching subjects beyond the two learning areas that they specialised in college. 

They have also complained about the little pay they get, noting it is insufficient to meet their most basic needs. 

“We have teachers that are teaching up to six subjects in junior schools which is way beyond their scope and that is another illegality while they are paid only Sh17,000,” Kipkorir said. 

The decision to extend their internship now mirrors the 2023 cohort of intern teachers who also had to renew their one-year contract in 2024 before confirmation on permanent and pensionable terms this year. 

Appearing before the National Assembly, TSC Director of staffing Antonina Lentoijoni alongside TSC Director for legal affairs, in November 2023 Calvin Anyuor, said all 46,000 teachers employed on internship terms will be converted to pnp automatically after serving for two years. 

This Anyuor said was a TSC policy that allows for teacher internship service for a maximum of two.