Mbadi shocker for JSS interns

The 46,000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers will have to wait a little longer to be absorbed into permanent and pensionable terms after the National Treasury said that the exercise will only kick off in January 2025.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said that although they have adequate funds for the exercise, the monies can only be availed in January next year.

Mbadi made the remarks when he met senators who sit in the senate committee on Budget and Finance to shed light on why the government had reduced the sharable revenue to counties by Sh 20 billion.

He explained that the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024, led to critical and national interests’ areas being unfunded.

They include such hiring of JSS, posting of medical interns to support health service delivery and implementation of universal health coverage as well as meeting continental obligation to construct five stadia for hosting African Cup of Nations remained unfunded.

 Out of the 46,000 JSS intern teachers, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has said it will recruit 20 000 of them.

At the moment the intern teachers are employed on contract annually.

He said: “With the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024, we had to take care of a number of things like the JSS because we have to employ them.”

He added: “And Yes, we have provided for funding for JSS teachers but this has to be done in January. The money we have is for posting of the intern teachers.”

Revelations by Mbadi will come as a blow to the intern teachers who had hoped that the exercise would begin this month after it was pushed upwards from October where it was supposed to commence.

The exercise was initially slated to start in July this year but the exercise did not take off after the money was slashed from the budget following the withdrawal of the finance bill. It came after TSC chairperson Nancy Macharia told MPs that at the moment, they could only access 15 percent of their budget.

Currently, there are 18,000 JSS teachers and 2,000 primary school teachers.

The hiring of the JSS intern teachers was among the demands that the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) made to TSC that saw the union calling off the strike that was supposed to start last month when schools re-opened for third term.

The other demands included promotion of 130,000 teachers, immediate implementation of the second phase of the 2021/2025 amended CBA signed between TSC and KNUT and immediate remittance of the third-party deductions accrued to their respective organizations.

In June this year, the JSS teachers called off their three weeks strike after TSC agreed to have them employed on a permanent and pensionable basis and agreed to withdraw all show case letters that had been issued to them.

Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General Akelo Misori, said that the TSC had agreed to meet all their demands including withdrawal of their dismissal letters.

In the return to work formulae agreed between KUPPET and TSC, the union said that they had also agreed to lobby parliament to allocate Sh 8.3billion to ensure that all intern teachers will be absorbed into permanent and pensionable basis.

The JSS teachers had demanded that they be employed on Permanent and pensionable terms, as well as be compensated for the period they have worked without pay as interns. Said Misori then: “KUPPET took great exception to the dismissals which went contrary to the rules of natural justice demanding that no one should be condemned unheard.”

The return to work formulae was signed after the National Assembly Committee on Education chairperson Julius Melly said that Sh8.3 billion had been allocated to the TSC to employ on permanent and pensionable terms the 26,000 teachers who are currently on contract.

Said Melly: “Further, the commission should convert the 26,000 interns to permanent employment beginning July 2024 and not January 2025 as proposed.”