The government and the teachers are at loggerheads again over the fate of 46,000 interns.

Yesterday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the intern teachers will have to apply afresh to be considered for permanent and pensionable terms.

Ogamba said Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would begin the transition of the teachers’ interns to Permanent and Pensionable terms up to December.

“The Commission will subject the said teachers to a competitive process in accordance with the Constitution and all the relevant laws. Candidates will be confirmed in their positions effective January 1, 2025, as per the approved budgetary allocation timelines,” Ogamba told the National Parliament Committee on Education.

But the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Secretary General Akello Misori dismissed the announcement, saying the teachers must be promoted automatically, adding that the CS was not the teacher’s employer and must keep off.

“That statement will create unnecessary tension between teachers and the government. "They (interns) shoul convert all the 46,000 teachers automatically to permanent and pensionable terms,” he said.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) secretary general Collins Oyuu said he was not aware of such developments and noted that all the interns must automatically be converted to permanent and pensionable terms. “When you are an intern, you are converted to permanent and pensionable terms. But when you are seeking a new job that is when you apply for consideration. As far as I am concerned that statement is not true,” Oyuu said.

Oyuu said that a fresh application shall not apply. “You apply again, then what? You are considered or denied the chance? No, that will not happen.”

The committee expressed frustrations over the delay in confirming the intern teachers.

“TSC has been allocated Sh18 billion, and we expected them to have confirmed all the 46,000 interns. What is going on?” said the chairman, Julius Melly, seeking clarity on when advertisements for the positions would be posted.

The Tinderet MP wondered why it had taken long before the teachers were confirmed. Melly asked TSC to clarify what will happen for the conversions to permanent and pensionable terms.

The revelations is a blow to the intern teachers who had hoped that the exercise would be automatic transition after the government had assured them.

One of the intern teachers said: “This is a blow to us,” reflecting the sentiment of her peers who felt let down by the change in plans.

It will also be a blow to the teachers’ unions that has pushed for the tutors conversion and even staged nationwide strike.

This announcement comes in the wake of significant unrest in the education sector.

Kuppet-led demonstrations involving over 100,000 teachers, demanding the conversion of JSS teachers to permanent positions.

Kuppett had agreed to lobby Parliament for Sh8.3 billion to ensure that all intern teachers are absorbed into permanent roles.

Oyuu said some of the interns were asked to extend their contracts ahead of January conversion.

Ogamba told MPs that the government is committed to enhancing the number of tutors to serve in the Junior Secondary Schools across the country.“The recruitment of an additional 20,000 teachers will follow the same timelines and process as that of the conversion of interns,” he said.

 TSC reported that 60,642 teachers have been trained to handle Grades 7 and 8.