The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will issue internship certificates to 46,000 teachers serving on internship terms.
This comes at a time the Commission extended the contracts of interns by four months. Intern teachers whose internship contracts ended on 31st August already filled forms to extend the contract.
Previously intern teachers were automatically converted to permanent and pensionable (PNP) terms after the end of their internship terms.
TSC officials have however hinted at issuing certificates to the teachers at the end of the term instead of converting them to PNP terms automatically.
TSC will advertise the vacancies and the intern teachers will be required to apply and attend recruitment interviews with colleague teachers.
However intern teachers will have upper hand during interviews as the teachers internship certificates will earn them more marks that will put them far ahead of other teachers.
Last month the Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said sh 18.7 billion had been released for confirming the 46,000 intern teachers.
The CS spoke after confirming that sh 13.5 billion had been released for implementing the teachers phase 2 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
“Iam pleased to announce the release of Ksh 18.7 billion for hiring intern teachers and 13.5 billiion to implement the CBA on salary increments. We are committed to uplifting the standards of education and ensuring our teachers are well compesated,” said Ogamba.
TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia said they postponed confirmation of intern teachers to January 2025 due to inadequate funds.
She said the amount allocated is short of the sh30 billion TSC needs to pay the intern teachers under the new terms for a whole year until , July 2025, the next budget allocation.
TSC estimates the sh18.7 billion budget provided for the conversion can only cater for the interns for a period of six months.
This means the confirmation which was to be done from July 2024 had to be delayed to January next year.
TSC has on its payroll a total of 46,000 teachers serving on internship terms.
These are 21,550 junior school and 4,000 primary school intern teachers recruited in February 2023.
450 secondary school intern teachers recruited in April 2023. 18,000 junior school and 2,000 primary school intern teachers recruited in September 2023.
TSC is also planning to recruit 20,000 intern teachers in October this year. Of these, 18,000 will be for junior secondary schools and 2,000 for primary schools.
Mnataka kuua watoto wa wenyewe na depression?
They said they won’t employ any teacher who has not served as intern. It was a con!