Junior Secondary School teachers hired in January 2023 can now breathe a sigh of relief after the National Assembly intervened to have them employed on permanent and Pensionable (P and P)terms.
The 26,000 teachers hired in the first batch of the JSS internship programme will now be hired on Pand P terms beginning July 1st.
The intern teachers, who have been holding demos to push for the P and P terms were to be confirmed in January 2025 in earlier communication from the Teachers Service Commission and President William Ruto.
Most of them currently serving have their internship contracts running to January 2025.
But the chair of the education committee Julius Melly Monday told the Budget and Appropriations Committee that Sh8.3 billion has been allocated for their employment.
"The Teachers Service Commission should streamline the recruitment process to ensure that resources allocated to this function are utilised fully at the beginning of the next financial year," Melly told the budget committee.
"The commission should convert the 26,000 intern teachers to P and P terms beginning July 2024 and January 2025 as earlier indicated."
Teaching had been paralysed at Junior Secondary Schools countrywide after the intern teachers downed tools to demand P and P terms.
Some of them have already received show cause letters for being absent from work with TSC arguing that the court order issued earlier in favour of JSS interns was stayed until August 1, 2024.
Justice Bryrum Ongaya of the Employment and Labour Relations Court on April 17, ruled that TSC violated the intern teachers' right to fair labour practice as they are qualified and possess teaching licenses.
“The respondents have not exhibited statutory regulatory or policy arrangements that would entitle the first respondent (TSC) to employ interns,” Ongaya said in the ruling.
“Ideally, the first respondent should employ registered teachers on terms that are not discriminatory and to meet the optimal staffing needs in public schools,” the ruling said.
The ruling was issued after the Forum for Good Governance and Human Rights petitioned the Court challenging the Teacher Internship Programme.
The internship programme began in 2019 with those employed to teach secondary being paid Sh20,000 while their primary counterparts get Sh15,000.
The JSS interns during their demos argued that the amount was too little to sustain their livelihoods.
