Relief for JSS teachers as MPs intervene on their job terms
Junior Secondary School teachers protest on the streets of Kakamega town demanding better terms of employment for interns.
What you need to know:
- “Beginning the next financial year, the Teachers Service Commission should streamline the recruitment process to ensure that resources assigned to this function are fully utilised,” Julius Melly, said in submissions to the Budget and Appropriations Commission (BAC) on the budget for the Ministry of Education for the financial year 2024/25.
- “Further, the commission should convert the 26,000 interns to permanent employment beginning July 2024 and not January 2025 as proposed.”
26,000 teachers on contract since last year will not have to wait until January 2025 to confirm permanent and pensionable (PnP) terms, following intervention by the National Assembly.
The teachers will now be hired on PnP terms from July 1 2024 after the Committee on Education and Research reversed an earlier plan by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to convert the teachers’ status in January 2025. The decision is a relief for the tutors who have been on strike since schools reopened in a bid to force the TSC to hire them on PnP terms.
The chair of the committee Julius Melly, told the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) that the TSC will employ the teachers in July 2024 and not January next year and that Sh8.3 billion has been allocated for their employment on PnP terms.
Read: TSC now threatens to sack JSS teachers
“Beginning the next financial year, the Teachers Service Commission should streamline the recruitment process to ensure that resources assigned to this function is fully utilised,” Mr Melly said in submissions to the Budget and Appropriations Commission (BAC) on the budget for the Ministry of Education for the financial year 2024/25.
“Further, the commission should convert the 26,000 interns to permanent employment beginning July 2024 and not January 2025 as proposed.”
The teachers’ strike has paralysed learning in many areas. Last week, the TSC wrote ‘show cause’ letters to 7,357 who were recorded as absent and therefore assumed to have been participating in the strike. The TSC has been employing teachers under the controversial ‘internship’ programme since 2019 where those deployed to primary schools earn a stipend of Sh15,000 while those in secondary school earn Sh20,000.
However, tutors in JSS will now have a starting basic salary of Sh36,621 plus a house allowance of between Sh9,600 and Sh16,500, depending on the location of their work station. The teachers will also qualify for leave and commuter allowances as well as benefit from the teachers’ health insurance scheme.
The Education committee asked the TSC to, within six months, undertake and evaluate the staff norms requirements for all institutions of basic learning for primary, junior and senior school in order to assess the optimal number of teachers required to guide future resource allocation for recruitment of teachers as well as their deployment.
Appearing before the BAC chaired by Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, Mr Melly said that a further Sh4.68 billion is required to recruit an additional 20,000 intern teachers in the financial year starting July 1, 2024.
The Tinderet MP the TSC requires an additional Sh1 billion for promotion of teachers and Sh13 billion for implementation of the second phase of the collective bargaining agreement for 2021-2025.
"Retooling of Junior Secondary School teachers on Competency Based Curriculum and the Collective Bargaining Agreement needs Sh1.3 billion," Mr Melly said.
“That the State Department for Basic Education should spearhead and hasten the process of establishing the Kenya Education Management Information System (KEMIS) as envisaged in the Medium-Term Plan IV to have a credible and accurate pool of learners' information to support decision-making in the sector,” Mr Melly said.
“This will be done by amalgamating NEMIS with the existing information systems for the tertiary education sub-sector as well as benefiting from additional information which will be gathered from the planned national schools census.”
Mr Melly said the TSC has been allocated Sh4.7 billion to recruit 20,000 teachers for JSS.
“The conversion terms of service for intern teachers will boost their morale and is also an assurance of the government commitment in ensuring that all future intern teachers are converted to permanent employment after completing the internship period,” Mr Melly said.
Mr Melly said the commission has been allocated Sh1 billion for promotion of teachers who had stagnated in one job group for a long period.
“The commission requires Sh2 billion to carry out these promotions where Sh1 billion was provided for in this current financial year and the allocation proposed in the 2024/25 will support the successful completion of these exercise where all teachers who have stagnated in various job groups for almost 17 years will benefit,” Mr Melly said.
“However, the commission requires additional resources to continuously promote teachers to avoid another backlog of stagnation going into the future.”
He said the commission does not have a clear staff establishment for JSS adding that preliminary work done by the TSC indicates that the junior secondary school teachers can handle four learning areas.
