Good News from TSC to All Intern Teachers
Good News from TSC to All Intern Teachers. A trustworthy source close to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) claims that this year will see the conversion of currently engaged intern teachers to permanent and pensionable (pnp) contracts.
If it happens, there will be more intern teachers employed by the PNP than ever before.
There was anxiety among the teachers last month after TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia said that the 20,000 teachers hired on internship terms in February would have to wait until January 2025 before acquiring permanent and pensionable employment.
Intern teachers typically work for little longer than a year before transitioning to pnp terms. TSC started looking for instructors for internships in 2019 and referred to them as trainees.
The Commission anticipates hiring 20,000 more teachers on a contract in the fiscal year beginning in July, but the amount will still be insufficient to increase enrolment at junior secondary schools (JSS).
Sh4.7 billion will be spent on employment. However, Macharia defended the academics from serving for longer than that by asserting that teachers cannot serve on internship periods for longer than two years.
Macharia said so when she appeared before the Senate National Cohesion Committee to address questions about the hiring and reassignment of teachers.
The TSC director responded to the Senators’ suggestion to hire teachers on a contract basis rather than on a permanent and pensionable basis in order to meet a shortage that the TSC estimates to be 111,810 teachers.
Asserting that doing so would allow the commission to hire more teachers with its limited budgetary allocation, the Senate directed the head of the TSC to assess what legislative barriers need to be removed in order for instructors to be hired on a contract basis.
Mrs. Macharia asserts that the commission is unable to maintain teachers on contracts for an excessively long period of time; rather, after two years, their contracts would become permanent and pensionable.
She continued by saying that the Commission is unable to hire more teachers because there isn’t money set out for the initiative.
“We have never had enough teachers because we don’t have the money. If you can fund it, we’ll recruit. Mrs. Macharia said.
Mrs. Macharia informed the committee that not all of the 36,000 newly employed teachers have yet been put to the payroll and that work is still being done on their records. The data for only 20,900 instructors have been completed so far.
Gishu Inasin Senator Jackson Mandago asserts that any remaining legal obstacles to the contractual hiring of teachers with particular compensation and employment terms must be removed by amending the Employment Act.
“Unions can’t imprison us. He asserted that Kenyans who are unemployed and children both need to be educated.
The notion of hiring on a contract basis should be put out to the Cabinet for approval, according to Mahvenda Gataya, a senator for Tharaka Nithi, so that individuals who successfully fulfil a predetermined time of work are annually hired on a permanent basis.
According to Mrs. Macharia, the commission hired 36,000 new teachers earlier this year; yet, there are still insufficient teachers in primary schools (47,339) and high schools (64,541).
She claimed that the commission requires a Shl4.8 billion annual budgetary commitment for teacher recruitment in order to achieve this.
The 20,000 teachers hired in February for internship durations won’t start receiving permanent employment with pension benefits until January 2025, according to information provided last week by Mrs. Macharia.
TSC plans to hire 20,000 more teachers on a contract basis in the fiscal year beginning in July, but the amount will still be insufficient to increase enrollment at junior secondary schools (JSS). Sh4.7 billion will be spent on employment.
According to Ms. Macharia, if the job terms were changed to permanent and pensionable, the commission would not have enough money to engage the additional instructors needed for JSS.
She pointed out that teachers who are employed to take the place of those quitting due to attrition will be hired on a permanent basis and be qualified for pensions.