President says KSh4.9bn will fund conversion of contract teachers to permanent terms as unions press for action on promotions and ECDE pay

 

 

President William Ruto has promised to recruit 20,000 teachers by the end of the year and move another 20,000 who have completed two-year internships into permanent and pensionable jobs from January.

 

The announcements came as Ruto joined teachers in Nairobi on Monday to mark World Teachers’ Day, with the government also promising more promotions and faster payment of retirement benefits.

 

The KSh4.9bn conversion will take 20,000 contract teachers who have completed two-year internships on to permanent and pensionable terms from January 2027, Ruto said. The additional recruitment would take the number of teachers hired since he came to office to 120,000.

 

The jobs promise was welcomed by teachers’ unions, but the celebrations also exposed a divide over who has benefited from the government’s expansion of the teaching workforce.

 

KUPPET chairman Omboko Milemba used the occasion to draw attention to early childhood development education teachers, whom he called the “forgotten teacher”.

 

“Your Excellency, I want to present the forgotten teacher. That is, the teacher who is not here, and who must be sought to be brought here. That is the ECD teacher,” Milemba said.

 

He asked Ruto to intervene over the remuneration of ECDE teachers, saying their pay remained below recommendations by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. Early childhood development education is a devolved function, with county governments responsible for employing and managing ECDE teachers.

 

The government will also increase the number of teachers eligible for promotion this financial year, from the 34,016 positions already advertised by the Teachers Service Commission to 50,000.

 

Ruto said the promotion budget had been doubled from KSh1bn to KSh2bn.

 

“We have doubled the teacher promotion budget from KSh1 billion to KSh2 billion and will increase promotions from 34,016 already advertised to 50,000, the largest exercise in a single year,” he said.

 

The government said 126,462 teachers had been promoted since Ruto took office in 2022. The TSC and teachers’ unions have also completed a review of career progression guidelines, which is awaiting approval by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

 

KNUT secretary-general Collins Oyuu welcomed the employment measures.

 

“On matters of education, you have exceeded expectations,” Oyuu said.

 

The expansion of the teaching workforce comes as the government increases spending on education and continues to roll out the competency-based curriculum.

 

Ruto said the education budget had risen to KSh784.5bn in the current financial year, making education the largest allocation in the national budget. KSh86.1bn in school capitation had been released before the start of the three terms in 2026, he said.

 

The government has also committed to reserve 20% of units built under its Affordable Housing Programme for teachers. The arrangement was agreed between the Affordable Housing Board, KNUT and KUPPET in September 2025.

 

The Teachers Service Commission is working with the housing board on a salary check-off system that would allow teachers to make payments directly from their salaries, Ruto said.

 

Retirement benefits were another focus of Monday’s address.

 

Ruto said the Pension Management Information System, whose rollout began on 1 July, was being used to digitise teachers’ records and speed up pension processing.

 

“The agencies responsible have assured me that within three months, we will be able to pay a teacher’s benefits within 10 days of retirement,” he said.

 

The focus on teachers’ welfare came as another part of the education sector remained in dispute with the government.

 

Public university staff entered the fourth day of a nationwide strike on Monday after talks over a new collective bargaining agreement stalled. UASU, KUSU and KUDHEIHA began the strike on 2 October over the 2025-29 agreement.

 

Education cabinet secretary Julius Ogamba used the teachers’ celebrations to call on the university unions and lecturers to return to work, saying the government had cleared arrears under the 2017-21 and 2021-25 agreements.

 

“I therefore call upon all the university staff unions and individual lecturers to reciprocate this good faith, obey court orders, and return to work,” Ogamba said.

 

But UASU secretary-general Constantine Wasonga said the union had exhausted avenues for engagement and would not suspend the strike while negotiations over the 2025-29 agreement remained unresolved. He also rejected the government’s proposed KSh9.76bn allocation for the four-year agreement as inadequate.

 

The dispute has left two parts of the public education system moving in opposite directions: the government announcing new jobs and promotions for basic education teachers while university staff remain on strike over pay and the terms of their next collective agreement.

 

Monday’s event also marked 60 years of the Teachers Service Commission. Its chair, Jamleck Muturi, said Ruto was the first president since independence to join teachers in marking World Teachers’ Day.

 

The celebrations were held under the theme “Standing with teachers: 60 years of protecting the profession, advancing its status and shaping our futures”.

 

Esther Wambui Macharia received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Ewoi Raphael Echakan was named Early Year Educator of the Year.