There is still uncertainty surrounding the 46, 000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) teacher interns’ much-anticipated permanent employment.
This comes after Njuguna Ndung’u, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, suggested cutting a sizeable portion of the Sh18.9 billion budget that was set out for the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
According to Ndung’u, the cut is intended to reduce the nation’s Sh200 billion budget deficit in light of Kenya Kwanza MPs’ decision to strike several tax measures from the Finance Bill, 2024.
Ndung’u believes that the hiring of new JSS and the planned confirmation of the interns under permanent and pensionable terms should be postponed.
After months of disputes, which included a strike, layoffs, and legal fights, the TSC and the teachers, who were keen to be confirmed, have now suffered a significant setback as a result of the decision.
The TSC had initially anticipated that Sh16.6 billion would be required to complete the conversion, resulting in a significant funding shortfall, even though the government had committed Sh13.4 billion for the purpose.
On Wednesday, the National Assembly Education Committee was supposed to convene with TSC to discuss the issue.
The Court of Appeal postponed plans last week to hire 46,000 intern teachers on on a permanent and pensionable terms.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court’s (ELRC) orders that TSC convert the internship to permanent and pensionable terms were suspended by Justices Asike Makhandia, Sankale Ole Kantai, and Ngenye Macharia.
Now, the interns will have to stay on as interns until the commission led by Nancy Macharia hears and rules on the issue.
TSC stated in its application that the directives from Justice ELRC had completely thrown its preparations into disarray because they had not budgeted for the money needed to recruit the intern instructors on permanent and pensionable terms.
