Junior Secondary School teachers protest on the streets of Kakamega town demanding better terms of employment for interns.
The 742 Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers whose contracts were terminated will be rehired soon, their employer said yesterday.
However, the interns must first appeal to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to be heard as required by the law.
TSC Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, urged the teachers who went on strike weeks ago demanding to be hired on permanent and pensionable terms following a court ruling, to launch an appeal.
Last month, thousands of JSS intern teachers who had been on strike since April 17, suspended the boycott until July 5 “to allow the National Assembly pass the Finance Bill, 2024”.
The 46,000 teachers asked their employer to recruit them on permanent terms. The graduate teachers were hired as interns in 2019.
Through their national spokesman Omari Omari, the interns also urged the commission to release a circular on their confirmation to permanent and pensionable terms as soon as the Financial Bill, 2024 is passed.
“After a meeting with JSS county leaders, we agreed to suspend the demonstrations and pave the way for Parliament to pass the budget on Thursday. By that date, we should have been communicated on the status of the confirmation of the 46,000 teachers,” Mr Omari said.
Ms Macharia said plans are under way to offer jobs on permanent and pensionable terms to those serving in public schools.
“We are confident that adequate funds will be availed for the exercise,” the TSC boss said during the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association conference in Mombasa.
She added that TSC would promote more teachers after the government set aside Sh1 billion for the exercise.
“We welcome new principals attending this meeting for the first time as substantive heads of institutions. This arose following the promotion of 545 deputy principals to principals during the 2023/24 financial year that ends this month,” the commission boss said.
TSC promoted 36,504 teachers in the current financial year, bringing the total number of those elevated in the last five years to 71,212.
“We will promote more teachers as we seek to clear the backlog. I urge principals to encourage eligible teachers in your schools to apply for the opportunities once the vacancies are advertised,” Ms Macharia said.
She advised the heads of institutions to ensure there are no delays in adding of the new teachers to the payroll by filing their casualties fast, adding that doing so would ensure salaries are paid on time and there is no overpayment.
Top TSC officials at the conference urged principals to promptly give the employer the necessary information on teachers posted to their schools from other institutions so that their house, municipal and hardship allowances are processed and paid on time.
“If you fail to report a teacher’s movement through the exit-entry module and update the data on TMIS, you are denying service to that tutor,” Ms Macharia said.
She urged the school heads to prepare for the first cohort of the Competency-Based Curriculum of learners expected to complete JSS next year.
Ms Macharia said the principals need to have in place adequate arrangements to receive the students.
TSC is in the process of drafting advice in the form of circulars to help teachers adequately prepare to receive the students in the new curriculum.
