According to the Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, 46,000 teachers working under internship teachers will have to apply afresh to be considered for permanent and pensionable terms.
The Education CS said the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would begin the transition of the teachers’ interns to Permanent and Pensionable terms up to December 2024.
Ogamba was speaking when he appeared before the National Assembly Committee to respond to concerns on the country’s preparedness to transition to the Grade 8 learners and Grade 9 in January 2025.
“The Commission will subject the said teachers to a competitive process by the Constitution and all the relevant laws. Candidates will be confirmed in their positions effective January 1, 2025, as per the approved budgetary allocation timelines,” Ogamba told the National Parliament Committee on Education.
However, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General Akello Misori dismissed the announcement, saying the teachers must be promoted automatically, adding that the CS was not the teacher’s employer and must keep off.
“That statement will create unnecessary tension between teachers and the government. “They (interns) should convert all the 46,000 teachers automatically to permanent and pensionable terms,” he said.
KUPPET Secretary General Akello Misori dismissed the announcement, saying the teachers must be promoted automatically, Misori adding that the Education CS was not the teacher’s employer and must keep off.
“That statement will create unnecessary tension between teachers and the government. “They (interns) should convert all the 46,000 teachers automatically to permanent and pensionable terms,” he said.
The intern teachers will be issued with internship certificates at the end of their partnership contracts. Primary headteachers will also give a comprehensive report on the conduct of intern teachers which will count during PNP recruitment.
This is a blow to the intern teachers who had hoped that the exercise would be an automatic transition after the government had assured them. It will also be a blow to the teachers’ unions that have pushed for the teacher’s conversion and even staged a nationwide strike.
In August, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) called off its national strike after engagement with the government but the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has urged its members to keep off schools until issues of pending salaries and promotions are addressed.
The Education CS said the government is working around the clock to make sure that teachers are paid all their pending dues. Ogamba said that the government is engaging KUPPET with the hope of resolving the stalemate so that learning resumes.
Migos noted that despite the impasse, students have continued to report back to school following the decision by KNUT to call off the strike. He was addressing the press at Lake Naivasha Resort after opening the 54th International Conference of the Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA).
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