- Enock Okong’o argues that leaving formal employment should not mark the end of a teacher’s usefulness.
- Biblical teachings, he says, present later life as a transition from strenuous work to wisdom and mentorship.
- Retired teachers can continue serving through mentoring, writing, school boards and guidance of younger professionals.
For many teachers in Kenya today, the word retirement is received with fear, anxiety and even bitterness. After thirty or more years of waking up early, preparing schemes of work and marking books, a letter comes from the employer saying you must exit the payroll.
In the staffroom there is a party and speeches are made, and then the teacher walks home and within weeks the routine that defined his identity is gone. Others plunge into beer-brewing dens on the pretext of covering what they baptise as the “reproach of being called old”, as if old is not gold!
The bell no longer rings for him and the children no longer call him Mwalimu, and he sits at home feeling irrelevant, idle and forgotten. For this reason, many teachers view retirement as hell, as an invited imprisonment and as the end of the road. This attitude has led to depression, early deaths and family conflicts among many retired teachers.
But is this the biblical view of retirement, and does God view sixty years as the end of usefulness? A careful scholarly examination of scripture shows a totally different picture from the modern labour law view. The main text that speaks directly about retirement is found in Numbers 8:24-26, a text often mistakenly quoted as Leviticus.
From doing to guiding
The Lord said to Moses that Levites from twenty-five years old shall take part in the work at the tent of meeting. At the age of fifty, they must retire from regular service and work no longer. They may, however, assist their brothers in performing duties at the tent of meeting.
A shallow reading suggests God retired His servants permanently at fifty and sent them home to do nothing. A deeper exegetical reading reveals that the Hebrew phrase translated as retire refers specifically to strenuous physical labour. It meant the heavy work of carrying the tabernacle, slaughtering animals and lifting loads, which required youthful energy.
At twenty-five the Levites had strength to do this, but at fifty that strength naturally declined. God did not tell them to leave the tent; He told them to remain and change assignment. They were to move from doing to guiding, from carrying to guarding, and from labouring to mentoring.
They were to minister to their brothers by keeping guard, ensuring doctrinal purity and teaching the law. They were to counsel younger Levites and protect the sanctity of worship from error. In other words, retirement in the Bible is not termination of calling; it is transition of function and promotion to wisdom ministry.
This principle is reinforced by the whole theology of work in scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Work was instituted before sin, for in Genesis 2:15 God put man in Eden to work it and take care of it. Work is therefore not a curse; it is a divine calling and a form of worship.
What became a curse after sin was toilsome, painful work, not work itself. Therefore, to completely stop working is to stop fulfilling purpose and to bury talent. Psalm 92:14 declares they will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green.
Proverbs 16:31 states that grey hair is a crown of glory when found in the way of righteousness. Proverbs 20:29 says the glory of young men is their strength, but the splendour of old men is their wisdom. The Apostle Paul in old age in prison did not retire into silence, but wrote epistles to Timothy and Titus that still guide the church.
This shows that God values the wisdom economy more than the energy economy in His kingdom. The young provide energy and the old provide wisdom, and both are needed in the same tent for survival. The tabernacle could not survive with only young carriers without guards, nor with only old guards without carriers.
A retired teacher remains a living library
Applied to teaching, this argument becomes very practical and urgent for our time. A teacher at twenty-five has energy to stand for eight lessons, mark hundreds of scripts and shout in class. At sixty that physical energy has naturally reduced, and it is reasonable for the employer to give rest.
But that teacher has accumulated thirty-five years of tested experience that no university can teach. He knows how to handle a difficult adolescent, how to help a weak learner pass, and how to predict examination trends. If that teacher buries that experience in his farm and sits idle, the community loses a living library.
The Bible calls such burial of talent wicked in Matthew 25:14-30, where the servant who buried his talent was condemned. God expects us to use what we have until He returns, and teaching is a talent. It is true that some teachers argue they have suffered a lot and deserve total rest, and that argument must be balanced fairly.
The Bible does not glorify overwork that destroys health and family. God commanded Sabbath rest in Exodus 20:8-11 for restoration of the body. Jesus told His disciples in Mark 6:31 to come apart to a quiet place and get some rest.
Therefore, retirement as rest from heavy, scheduled, mandatory labour is biblical and necessary for health. The error is not in resting; the error is in interpreting rest as total withdrawal into idleness and self-pity. Biblical rest is restorative, not destructive, and it prepares you for lighter but more strategic service.
From the classroom to the watchtower
Therefore, teachers must change their attitude towards retirement completely. Retirement is not hell, it is not the end of the road, and it is not imprisonment as many think. It is a promotion from the classroom to the watchtower, from doing to mentoring.
It is a call from teaching children to teaching teachers, from marking books to writing books, and from implementing curriculum to guarding standards. Retired teachers are needed now more than ever to run weekend clinics, mentor young teachers and serve in Boards of Management. The energy to carry the tabernacle may have ended, but the wisdom to guard it is most needed now.
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Therefore, let all teachers know that theirs is a noble profession that views retirement not as invited imprisonment but a call to a nobler mission packed with unfathomable, tested and proven experience.
By Enock Okong’o
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