The 20,000 intern teachers whose contracts will end in December will be employed on permanent terms from January next year. This was revealed by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi when he appeared before the National Assembly Education Committee this week.
There’s no money for this in this year’s budget but Mbadi said the government will absorb the teachers once their contracts expire.
“This is what the President has said and now it’s my job to make it happen,” he said.
He was responding to a question from Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Gisairo who wanted to know what will happen to these teachers given the budget constraints.
“Are you planning to employ these teachers permanently or at least renew their contracts which end in December?” Gisairo asked.
Mbadi assured the committee that despite the budget gap, the government will employ more teachers to cater for the growing student population across the country.
“There’s no money for this in the budget but it’s my job to find the money and make sure these teachers are employed on permanent terms in January,” he said.
He appeared before the committee alongside Education CS Julius Ogamba and said about Sh5.4 billion will be needed for the exercise.
He also mentioned that Sh2.34 billion has been set aside for hiring more intern teachers from January 2026 but the government is still grappling with a tough fiscal environment. This has been worsened by unavoidable spending demands particularly on security and emergency responses.
“Even with those pressures we’ve prioritized the education sector. In the 2025/2026 budget education has received Sh702.7 billion — the highest allocation among all sectors,” he added.
That money will go towards primary, junior secondary, senior secondary, TVET and university institutions. It will also cover teacher salaries and infrastructure development.
But Mbadi acknowledged some education programs are underfunded and promised adjustments if revenue collection improves.
He also said the government will continue to provide resources for teacher recruitment and infrastructure development especially for the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC). This year the Treasury has allocated Sh7.68 billion for teacher hiring and Sh1.27 billion for TVET instructors.
Mbadi dismissed suggestions that security spending should be cut to boost education funding.“Why are we spending so much on security as if we’re at war? But let me be clear — without security we can’t even conduct national exams. It’s key,” he said.
“If you ask me are we at war, I’ll say yes. We must keep threats like Al-Shabaab outside our borders. Our neighbors aren’t exactly stable either — except maybe Tanzania.”
In May, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had told MPs it couldn’t retain the 20,000 intern teachers this year due to lack of funds. TSC officials said they had lobbied the Treasury during the budget process but the proposal was not included in the 2025/26 budget.
