The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has blacklisted intern teachers who refused to renew their internship contract for the second year.
The details of the teachers who failed to report back to their stations in January were sent to the Commission by the second week after schools reopened.
The intern teachers who were mostly attached to junior secondary school section will have hard time securing a teaching opportunity with TSC in future.
The Commission has already re-advertised their vacancies and the application exercise is currently ongoing.
TSC has called for candidates who meet the requirements to teach in junior secondary school to apply online.
In December the Commission re-advertised 1,098 vacancies for junior school intern teachers who failed to report to their schools after they secured their employment opportunities.
TSC had made it clear only intern teachers who will renew their internship contract will be confirmed to pnp in 2025.
The JSS intern teachers had rejected the extension of their contract to another year. They wanted TSC to confirm them to permanent terms after serving for a year.
However the Commission said it doesn’t have money to employ them on permanent terms and wanted them to serve for another one year before being confirmed.
TSC officials at county and sub county levels had warned of dire consequences for those who will fail to report to school in the first week.
Primary headteachers were ordered to submit names of those who had reported to schools in the first and second week.
TSC says its now a government policy for a teacher to serve for two years internship before being absorbed into pnp payroll.
The teachers together with Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have been protesting in various counties in December over plan by TSC to extend internship contract.
The JSS intern teachers who are paid a monthly stipend of sh. 20,000 only receive sh. 17,000 after deductions.
They say this is too little and can’t match the current cost of living. Others say they have been posted to very remote schools making life even harder with poor pay.
TSC want the intern teachers to serve for two year internship contract before being converted to pnp terms in January 2025.
Recently President William Ruto said his government has changed the policy where internship will now take two years.
Ruto assured junior school intern teachers of employment once they serve the two year contract.
“It is now a government practice for the intern teachers to work for two years before they are employed on permanent and pensionable terms,” Ruto said at State House.
“The JSS intern teachers will be at work in January. We had promised that before being employed on permanent and pensionable terms, they must do an internship for two years.”
However the teachers say the initial deal was they would serve for only one-year non-renewable contract, as interns before being offered permanent jobs.
They said they do not understand why the deal has been stretched to two years.
The JSS intern teachers were on strike but their interim leaders had called off the nationwide strike and asked members to report to work.
A number of teachers refused to go back to their stations for another year of internship.
At the same time TSC has said it will start recruitment of at least 20,000 new teachers to bridge staffing gaps in junior school.
TSC has admitted that junior secondary schools are grappling with ssevere teacher shortages.
Chief Executive Nancy Macharia said the schools require 99,045 teachers against the current number of 56,928.
The Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) pioneer class is reporting to Grade 8 and the second JSS class starts.
However, as schools reopen, there are no extra teachers who will be employed, and the schools will have to wait until July.
“The government is continuously funding schools to progressively bridge the staffing gap. In the next financial year, TSC has requested funds to hire an additional 20,000 teachers to bridge the gap,” said Dr Macharia.
Compassionate leave to attend a brother-in-law burial