TSC Warns of Education Collapse as Supreme Court Weighs Future of 44,000 Intern Teachers
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has issued a dramatic warning to the Supreme Court, arguing that the abrupt termination of the embattled intern teachers programme will trigger an immediate staffing crisis in junior secondary schools and violate the constitutional rights of over 3.2 million students.
In confidential filings seen by this publication, the Commission paints a dire picture of operational chaos, arguing that the Court of Appeal’s ruling declaring the internship scheme unconstitutional cannot be enforced without collapsing the entire Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) framework.
The legal battle, which began in 2023, reached a fever pitch when the appellate court ruled that the designation of qualified teachers as “interns” was a deliberate legal maneuver by the State to escape the obligations of permanent employment, including fair remuneration and social protections. However, TSC Acting CEO Evaleen Mitei argues in the Supreme Court documents that enforcing that decision now would create an unfunded financial liability exceeding Sh30.9 billion, a sum that the National Treasury has not allocated and cannot mobilize under current public finance laws.
The financial crisis outlined in the filings reveals that TSC currently pays intern teachers a gross stipend of Sh20,000, which nets down to approximately Sh17,000 after mandatory deductions for SHIF, NSSF, and the Housing Levy. The Commission states that immediately converting all 44,000 interns to permanent and pensionable terms would require the government to find Sh30.9 billion overnight, a scenario Mitei describes as “fiscally impossible.” She notes that TSC has only budgeted for Sh7.2 billion in the upcoming July budget, which is designated solely for converting the first cohort of 20,000 teachers recruited in 2025, leaving the remaining 24,000 interns and the broader financial gap unaddressed.
The Commission warns that the sudden absorption of all interns without a budgetary provision would violate constitutional and statutory processes governing public finance, potentially triggering a legal crisis over unlawful government expenditure. This financial tightrope has placed the government in a difficult position, balancing labor rights against the hard reality of treasury limits.
Beyond the budget crisis, the TSC filings emphasize the immediate disruption to learning, warning that junior schools would lose nearly half their teaching workforce if the internship programme ends abruptly. The Commission argues that with 44,000 interns currently serving as the backbone of junior secondary education, their sudden removal would leave classrooms empty and overwhelm the remaining permanent staff, leading to ballooning class sizes that violate the right to quality education under Article 43 of the Constitution.
The documents note that no contingency plan exists at the county or school level to absorb such a shock, and the Commission insists that terminating the programme without a structured transition would cause “serious disruption, or even the complete failure, of curriculum delivery in Public Schools.” This argument appears to have resonated with the apex court, as Chief Justice Martha Koome and a bench of five Supreme Court judges granted interim stay orders on April 30, effectively freezing the Court of Appeal’s decision and preserving the internship programme temporarily.
Despite this legal reprieve, the ground situation remains tense, with junior school teachers across Kenya recently taking to the streets to demand immediate confirmation of their status. The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has rejected the TSC’s financial arguments, accusing the Commission of using budget constraints as a shield to perpetuate exploitation and unfair labour practices.
Union leaders point to the Court of Appeal’s finding that the internship contracts were designed “to escape the inescapable effect of the employment relationship,” arguing that TSC cannot hide behind treasury limitations when fundamental constitutional rights are at stake.
The union has vowed to escalate industrial action if the government fails to present a clear roadmap for permanent employment, warning that teachers are unwilling to continue working under inferior terms while performing the same duties as their permanent colleagues.
As the Supreme Court prepares for full hearings, TSC maintains that it is actively engaging the National Treasury, the National Assembly, and other government agencies to secure long-term funding for permanent employment of teacher interns. The Commission has urged teachers to remain committed to their work, promising that it is striving to improve their terms and conditions of service, though it admits that the process requires adequate time due to constitutional and statutory processes governing public finance.
For the 44,000 interns, however, time is a luxury they feel they do not have, as they continue to live on stipends far below the salaries of permanent staff while bearing the same classroom responsibilities. Legal analysts note that the Supreme Court’s eventual ruling will set a major precedent not only for teachers but for thousands of other contract workers in the public service, potentially forcing a wholesale restructuring of public sector hiring away from casualization.
Until the apex court delivers its final judgment, the fate of Kenya’s junior secondary schools, the rights of 3.2 million students, and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of young teachers hang in a precarious balance, waiting for the bench to decide whether the State’s fiscal limits or the worker’s right to fair labour shall prevail.
