The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will reinstate the 742 intern teachers it had interdicted for absconding duty.
This was revealed by TSC CEO Dr. Nancy Macharia when she was issuing her speech at Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) conference.
TSC had issued termination letters to the teachers after they failed to report to their stations when schools reopened for second term.
The teachers are part of thousand others who took part in nationwide strike to force TSC to confirm them on permanent and pensionable terms.
However TSC had reinstated teachers who had replied to ‘show cause’ letters it issued to the striking teachers.
Those who failed to reply and did not attend the retooling programme on Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) organized by TSC were issued with termination of contract letters.
Macharia however remained tight lipped on fate of the 46,000 teachers working on internship terms.
The government had assured to confirm the teachers on PNP terms should the Finance Bill 2024 sail through parliament.
The Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung’u had warned that the government will lose sh 200 billion should the finance bill fail.
CS Ndung’u who wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly said it will not be possible to confirm the 46,000 intern teachers on TSC payroll.
He warned that TSC will lose a total of sh 18.9 billion which was set aside for converting the teachers to permanent and pensionable terms.
He further warned that massive budget cuts will be done across all the three arms of government that is the judiciary, parliament and executive.
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.
The fate of the teachers now hang in the balance after President William Ruto bowed to pressure and termed the bill null and void.
Ruto refused to sign the bill and instead sent it back to parliament asking the legislatures to delete all its clauses.
The employment of teachers on an internship basis has been a point of concern leading to a standoff, a strike, layoffs and even a pending court case between the interns and TSC.
The interns argue that they are subjected to unfair labour practices as they execute the same workload as their peers on permanent and pensionable terms but are paid much less.
In April, the Employment and Labour Relations Court suspended the employment of tutors on an intern basis agreeing with the interns that it was an unfair labour practice.
But the teachers’ employer contested the decision by Justice Bryum Ongaya at the Court of Appeal and got a reprieve recently.
The court’s three judges said the hiring of teachers in internship positions be stopped until an appeal is heard and determined.
This means, TSC now has the last laugh as the aggrieved teachers will have to continue working as interns until the case filed by the Dr Nancy Macharia led commission is heard and determined.
In the application, TSC claimed that the orders by Justice Ongaya had thrown its operations into a spin as the money required to hire the intern teachers on permanent and pensionable terms was not budgeted for.
The judgement was stayed till 1st August 2024 when intern teachers will know their fate in terms of employment and compensation.