- The Kiharu MP said parliament has set aside money for the TSC to confirm the teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
- Education Committee chair Julius Melly had said only 26,000 will be absorbed on permanent terms.
Image: FILE
National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson Ndindi Nyoro now says intern Junior Secondary School teachers will soon be employed on permanent and pensionable terms.
The 46,000 teachers, who are currently serving on contract terms, have paralysed learning in JSS classes in a bid to push the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to confirm their employment.
The JSS interns downed their tools last week demanding employment on permanent and pensionable terms.
Nyoro said TSC has been allocated the biggest budget amounting to over Sh300 billion from which he said the commission will get resources to employ the protesting teachers on permanent terms.
“TSC is the number one highest funded institution in Kenya with over Sh.300 billion. We want to confirm JSS teachers and I want to reassure them that we are going to provide money for the confirmation of permanent and pensionable terms to intern JSS teachers,” Nyoro said.
However, there are reports that the money allocated to TSC may not be enough to confirm to permanent terms all the 46,000 intern JSS teachers.
Responding to reports that the Department of Basic Education had its budget slashed by over Sh19 billion, Nyoro said there is no cause for alarm although each department was pushing for more allocations.
Parliamentary Education Committee chairman Julius Meli last week disclosed that not all intern JSS teachers currently hired on contract will be absorbed by TSC.
He said the government will only absorb 26,000 JSS intern teachers on permanent and pensionable status in the next financial year starting from June 2024.
The government plans to Parliamentary Education Committee chairman Julius Meli disclosed that the intern JSS teachers currently hired on contract will be absorbed by TSC as funds have been allocated by Parliament.
Meli appealed to the Junior Secondary School teachers to stop their weekly demonstration and instead go back to class and teach as their concerns were being addressed.
“Parliament has allocated TSC with a kitty to hire 26,000 JSS interns on a permanent basis. The remaining would be absorbed in the subsequent years, hence we need them to be patient,” Meli said.
The legislator revealed that his committee yielded to the National Treasury’s explanation of why they could not absorb the entire JSS interns due to financial constraints.
Meli added that a new group of 20,000 JSS intern tutors will be hired on a one-year contract as soon as the 26,000 are employed to help cover the huge teacher deficit currently in Kenyan schools.
On 17 April, Justice Bryrum Ongaya of the Employment and Labour Relations Court ruled that TSC violated the intern teachers' right to fair labour practice.
“The respondents have not exhibited statutory regulatory or policy arrangements that would entitle the first respondent (TSC) to employ interns,” he said.
“Ideally, the first respondent should employ registered teachers on terms that are not discriminatory and to meet the optimal staffing needs in public schools.”