Education

KUPPET urges Treasury to allocate funds for permanent employment of intern teachers

KUPPET's Isiolo branch secretary, Moses Kimwere (centre), joins intern teachers from junior secondary schools in a protest over poor pay in Isiolo town on May 13, 2024. (Photo: Waweru Wairimu/EV)

By Lucy Mumbi | Thursday, May 16, 2024

The plea arises amidst the refusal of Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers to return to classrooms even as schools commence for the second term.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has urged the National Treasury to allocate funds for the Teachers Service Commission to employ intern teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.

The plea arises amidst the refusal of Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers to return to classrooms even as schools commence for the second term.

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On Monday, the JSS teachers took to the streets countrywide, protesting the failure of the commission to employ them on permanent terms.

The teachers demand that the TSC comply with the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) which ruled that their labour rights were violated by being employed as interns instead of on permanent and pensionable terms.

KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misori decried that learning in Grades Seven and Eight has been paralysed due to the ongoing demonstrations, posing a threat to the education of over 2.5 million students.

“For the second day running, learning has been paralysed in all JSS classes as the teachers protest. Kuppet affirms our readiness to work with the National Treasury and other government organs in resolving this issue within the law,” he said in a letter addressed to the National Treasury, Parliament and TSC on May 14, 2024.

Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori addresses the media at a past event

“The National Treasury should immediately initiate the process of earmarking resources for the Teachers Service Commission, to employ teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.”

Mediation process

He also urged the National Assembly Education and Research Committee to accept mediation adding that JSS is vital in the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

“Though the TSC is appealing the judgment, such an effort is futile and counter-productive since the court has elucidated the law in the issue. No institution is better placed to help the parties reach an amicable resolution than the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Research,” he said.

Misori affirmed that the union supports regularising employment terms of the 46,000 teachers on contract, a majority of whom are in JSS.

The teachers are on one-year contracts but those hired last year had theirs extended. An intern primary school teacher gets a monthly "stipend" of Sh15,000 while one in JSS is given Sh20,000.

The teachers, however, take home less since the "stipend" is subject to tax, including the Housing Levy.

The TSC had said it would convert the terms for contract teachers who had served for two years to permanent and pensionable.

Misori has now called for a meeting with the TSC within seven days, saying the crisis can only be redressed through partnership and dialogue, rather than brinkmanship and endless litigation.

He said the meeting would explore immediate solutions and a return-to-work formula for the teachers.

“Given the enormity of the crisis, we would appreciate meeting your side at the earliest convenience,” reads the letter.