Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers whose contracts had been terminated by the government can breathe with relief following the announcement of a plan to rehire them.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on June 27, 2024, announced that of 742 JSS teachers who had been fired would be rehired soon.
TSC Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia made the announcement during her address at the 47th Annual Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) meeting in Mombasa.
Macharia, however, revealed the process that the fired teachers who went on strike weeks ago will have to follow to be reemployed.
According to the TSC boss, the interns must first appeal to the Commission to be heard as required by the law.
TSC on Re-hiring JSS Teachers
Macharia urged the tutors who went on strike demanding to be hired on permanent and pensionable terms following a court ruling, to launch an appeal.
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She further said that plans are under way to offer jobs on permanent and pensionable terms to the JSS intern teachers serving in public schools.
“We are confident that adequate funds will be availed for the exercise,” the TSC boss said.
Macharia added that TSC would promote more teachers after the government set aside Ksh1 billion for the exercise.
A total number of 46,000 graduate teachers who were hired as interns in 2019 have been demanding TSC to recruit them on permanent terms.
The thousands of JSS intern teachers who had been on strike since April, however, suspended the boycott last month.
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The boycott was suspended until July 5 by the teachers to give the National Assembly time to pass the Finance Bill 2024.
Further, the interns through their national spokesman Omari Omari 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,” Omari said.
TSC Promotions
Meanwhile, TSC during the meeting announced that it had promoted more than 71,000 teachers in the past five years in a significant stride towards improving education in the country.
Dr. Macharia pointed out that the Commission promoted 36,504 teachers in the current financial year, bringing the total number of those elevated in the last five years to 71,212.
The TSC boss further said that the commission will promote more teachers as it seeks to clear the backlog.
She advised the heads of institutions to file their casualties fast which according to her would ensure there are no delays in adding of the new teachers to the payroll, adding that doing so would ensure salaries are paid on time and there is no overpayment.
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