President William Ruto has announced that the government will recruit more teachers and hire the interns on permanent and pensionable terms.
Speaking at ACK Diocese of Nyahururu on Sunday, June 23, Ruto said the move is meant to reduce workload and ensure all learners are taught.
“To ensure that all our children get the opportunity to study, last year we recruited more teachers. This year we are going to employ another 20,000 teachers to teach our children,” Ruto said.
The Head of State also said intern teachers will be hired on permanent basis amidst the ongoing row with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
“The 46,000 interns will no longer be interns, we will upgrade them to permanent and pensionable this year so that they can achieve their goal of teaching our children,” he said.
Ruto Lists Other Education Related Increased Allocations
He mentioned that the government has also increased the budget allocation to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) by Ksh10 billion.
He explained that this will allow for the construction of ICT hubs to create jobs for the youth and combat unemployment.
Additionally, Ruto said the government has increased the 2024/25 budget allocation to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
President Ruto said this will ensure that no child, especially those from vulnerable families, misses the opportunity to attend a TVET institution or university due to their guardian’s or parents’ inability to pay fees.
“We are going to make sure that every child has access to higher education,” he said.
Proposals to Cut HELB & TSC Allocations
This comes a few days after National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u proposed deductions to some of the State Departments and Commission should the Finance Bill 2024 be rejected.
In the proposals, TSC was one of the biggest losers, with a proposed Ksh18.9 billion reduction.
CS Ndung’u said move will defer the confirmation of intern teachers to permanent and pensionable status, and the hiring of Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers.
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The CS also proposed a Ksh8.3 billion cut to the State Department of Higher Education and Research.
This will see the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) lose Ksh3.2 billion, the Differentiated Unit Cost reduced by Ksh2.1 billion, and the Infrastructure Projects slashed by Ksh3 billion.
Additionally, the allocation to the State Department for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVETs) has been reduced by Ksh800 million.
Besides, he proposed a Ksh3.4 billion reduction to the State Department for Basic Education including Ksh1.6 billion for infrastructure for primary and secondary schools and a Ksh1.8 billion reduction from the school feeding programme.
CS Ndung’u explained that the proposals to drop certain provisions in the Finance Bill 2024 could occasion a Ksh200 billion budget hole.
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Court Ruling on Intern Teachers Confirmation
This announcement also comes after the Court of Appeal suspended a previous order from the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) that mandated the TSC to employ the interns on permanent terms.
The Court ruled that the intern teachers must continue in their current roles until the appeal filed by the TSC is heard and determined.
TSC had also terminated the contracts of 742 JSS Teachers on grounds of professional misconduct.
The Commission argued that some intern teachers either failed to provide a satisfactory response or chose not to respond to the show cause letters sent last month.
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