The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced that it will pay salary arrears in May for intern and replacement teachers who have recently started receiving monthly salaries.
TSC processed April salaries on 20th April after closing its payroll on 16th April. While many intern and replacement teachers received their April pay, a number of them had missed their March salaries or earlier payments. In April, most of these teachers only received a one-month salary without the arrears for previous months worked.
The Commission had recruited 24,000 junior school intern teachers in January and deployed them to schools. It also hired 9,159 replacement teachers to fill gaps left by those who exited the service in 2025. Some replacements reported in January, while others joined in February.
The replacement teachers were recruited on permanent and pensionable terms, while intern teachers are on a one-year internship contract running from 1st January to 31st December 2026.
The replacement positions included 7,065 primary school posts, 12 junior school posts, and 2,082 secondary school posts.
TSC began partial salary payments in March, but many teachers missed payments for several months, leading to complaints across the country. The situation came amid reports from the Auditor General that the Commission was facing a budget deficit of about Ksh 7.5 billion. However, TSC later received a supplementary budget allocation of Ksh 24.2 billion to help address salary shortfalls.
Although salaries have now started to be processed, some teachers say they are still awaiting arrears for previous months, raising concern among affected staff.
A junior school intern teacher earns a monthly stipend of about Ksh 20,000, which reduces to around Ksh 18,000 after deductions such as SHIF, housing levy, and NSSF.
Replacement teachers, on the other hand, are on permanent and pensionable terms and are entitled to full salary benefits after probation. Primary school teachers in Grade B5 start with a basic salary ranging from Ksh 25,028 to Ksh 31,615, plus allowances such as commuter, hardship, house, and annual leave allowances depending on their posting.
Graduate teachers in junior and secondary schools begin at higher salary scales, with additional allowances for hardship areas and urban postings such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and other municipalities.
According to TSC, teachers also go through a probation period before confirmation, after which they are fully integrated into the permanent payroll system.
The Commission has indicated that affected teachers will receive their pending arrears in May as it works to stabilise salary payments across the system.
