Union leaders have protested against an advertisement for 24,000 interns by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

They accuse the commission of exploiting the desperation of jobless tutors, and resorting to stop-gap measures to address the teacher shortage crisis.

The leaders said the TSC has failed to meet their long-standing demands to convert interns into permanent and pensionable staff and improve pay.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Collins Oyuu, Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima, and Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (Kethawa) Secretary Wangenye Ndung’u said it is a continuation of a policy that traps qualified tutors in low-paying and insecure roles.

Mr Nthurima accused the government of exploiting unemployed teachers through internship programmes.

“It is very unfortunate when the government decides to subject a section of society—qualified teachers—to slavery and servitude just so they can get cheap labour. Teachers are being subjected to poverty and hopelessness. We will oppose it,” Mr Nthurima told Daily Nation.

The official said there is no law that allows TSC to employ teachers on internship terms. He added that past grievances had not been addressed, including an increase of interns’ salaries to Sh25,000.

“Our earlier grievances have not been addressed. Instead of correcting this injustice, the government has chosen to retain teachers on Sh17,000 pay, which is unacceptable,” Mr Nthurima said.

He said that the country needs at least 116,000 teachers to bridge the staffing gap, but the government has opted to hire interns on meagre pay.

“This is a policy crafted by the government to create an impression that teachers are being employed. In reality, they are being hired for free services. The programme is for political mileage,” Mr Nthurima said.

According to the advertisement, the commission said the internship positions will be offered for 12 months, and qualified candidates will get a monthly stipend of Sh20,000. The amount will be subject to statutory deductions where applicable for the period of the internship programme.

Mr Nthurima said that the internship programme “cannot bridge the gap” and warned that it was harming the wellbeing of teachers.

“These teachers spend most of their time agonising over poor pay. They cannot afford basic commodities. They are supposed to live a decent life as professionals, but because of low pay, they remain trapped in this slavery and servitude for as long as they are in the programme,” he said.

Mr Nthurima also raised concerns over the quality of education under the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), noting that interns are often overworked and undertrained for certain assignments.

For his part, Mr Oyuu said that the union’s previous demands for better pay for teachers in urban areas and the recruitment of more permanent staff have not been met.

He said the internship programme, while helpful in easing shortages temporarily, risks becoming a stopgap measure instead of a long-term solution of hiring teachers.

“The shortage is still significant; 24,000 intern teachers cannot bridge a gap of more than 90,000. We welcome the move, but it is only a partial solution, and we still expect more teachers to be employed,” he said.

Mr Ndung’u said they are concerned that the 24,000 internship positions will barely make a dent in the country’s acute teacher shortage.

“We are staring at a shortfall of teachers nationwide. Even if all these intern posts are filled, the deficit will remain wide. The government must allocate more resources to ensure schools, especially in hardship and arid regions, are staffed adequately,” he told Daily Nation.

Mr Ndung’u called for priority posting of teachers to hardship zones to address persistent shortages. He said that many schools in those areas rely almost entirely on intern teachers.

“When teachers are being posted, the schools in hardship zones should be staffed first so that we can cure the shortage. Teachers of this country expect better treatment. Right now, the few teachers in schools in hardship areas are mostly interns, yet they have the same workload as permanent staff,” he said.