Some 7,357 teachers on contract, who have been on strike since schools reopened last week, risk losing their jobs after the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) issued them with ‘show cause’ letters Thursday after receiving data from the counties on the absentees.
The teachers are part of the 46,000 recruited in February and September last year and deployed to junior school. They have been given two weeks within which to respond, failure to which their contracts will be terminated.
The decision to send the letters was arrived at after a meeting at the TSC headquarters on Wednesday. The mass sackings will further affect learning in JSS in public schools which remain understaffed. The strike has affected learning in many schools.
The teachers have stayed away from school demanding employment on permanent and pensionable (PnP) terms following a court ruling last month. Some 38,863 teachers on contract are deployed to JSS, while only 687 are on PnP terms. Six thousand ‘interns’ are in primary schools and 450 others are in secondary schools.
“It is noted with a lot of concern that you breached the provisions of TSC Act Schedule Clause (b) in that you engaged in professional misconduct by being absent from duty,” The letters seen by Nation read.
“Given the above, the commission is contemplating termination of your engagement as an intern. Therefore, you’re hereby called upon to show cause why the internship engagement with the commission should not be terminated,” reads the letters that have been copied to regional and county directors of education.
Absenteeism has been on the rise from 5,722, who were recorded as absent on May 14, 2024, to 7,357 recorded on May 17, 2024, while demonstrations have been held in various parts of the country. However, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kericho, Migori, Turkana and West Pokot counties recorded zero absenteeism as all the teachers reported to work.
The highest absenteeism was recorded in Mombasa (59.32 percent), Samburu (58.59 percent), Meru (57.87 percent), Tharaka Nithi (57.08 percent) Isiolo (53.07 percent) counties.
The dispute stems from a case that the ‘intern’ teachers filed at the Employment and Labour Relations Court, which ruled in their favour by stopping the recruitment on contract.
The court found that TSC can only hire teachers on permanent and pensionable terms, and has no power to hire teachers on internship contracts. The teachers are employed on one-year contracts, but those hired last year had theirs extended. Those in primary schools earn a monthly ‘stipend’ of Sh15,000, while those deployed to JSS and secondary schools earn Sh20,000.
However, they take home less since the ‘stipend’ is subject to taxation, including the Affordable Housing Levy. The TSC has promised to convert the terms for contract teachers, who will have served for two years into permanent and pensionable. The teachers are also not covered under the teachers’ medical scheme and are expected to obtain a personal accident cover.
The TSC has since obtained orders to stay implementation of the ruling until August 1, 2024, as it pursues an appeal against the judgment.
The commission has promised to convert 26,000 teachers from contract to PnP terms in January 2025. Most of these teachers are deployed and will have served for two years by the end of the year. Of the total figure, 4,000 will be primary school teachers, and the other 22,000 will be secondary school teachers. The employer has been allocated Sh8.3 billion for the 2024 – 2025 budget proposals.
The TSC has been allocated Sh4.68 billion to hire 20,000 more teachers on contract. This would bring the total number of teachers recruited by the Kenya Kwanza government to 76,000. The manifesto of the coalition promised to bridge the teacher gap which stood at 116,000 by employing 58,000 teachers at Sh25 billion per year.
If such funds were to be allocated for the purpose, all the teachers would be hired on permanent and pensionable terms. The government started recruiting teachers on one-year contracts in 2019 under the ‘internship’ programme.
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) last week petitioned the TSC, the National Assembly Committee on Labour, and the National Treasury to resolve the impasse.
