TSC allocated sh13.4 billion for confirming all intern teachers

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u has allocated Sh13.4 billion in the 2024-25 budget to employ Junior Secondary School teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.

The Teachers Service Commission while appearing before MPs in mid-May this year quoted a higher amount to be able to employ all 46,000 interns. 

According to approximations by the Commission, it would cost the taxpayers  Sh30 billion to hire all 46,000 interns into permanent terms by July 1, 2024.

TSC said then that it planned to hire 26,000 intern teachers in January 2025. 

The teachers’ employer told MPs it would cost Sh8.3 billion to confirm the 26,000 teachers into permanent terms.

The 46,000 teachers who were hired on contract as interns have been protesting across the country since the beginning of the second term seeking permanent and pensionable employment. 

The protests by the interns from May 13 led the commission to issue warning letters in a bid to have them return to work.

On May 22, TSC sent the protesting interns show-cause letters, after which it moved to sack some of them. 

Termination letters, dated June 6, seen by the Star on Monday indicated several of the teachers were sacked over what TSC termed as “professional misconduct”. 

“10,348 who absented themselves from work from May 13, 2024, were given show-cause letters to explain their whereabouts,” the Commission said.

Out of 10,348 teachers who received the show-cause letters, TSC says only 9,606 teachers were able to respond within the two weeks.

TSC sacked 742 interns in relation to the protests. 

“Of them, 742 teachers who did not report to work and whose whereabouts were not known had their contracts terminated and replaced,” TSC said. 

The 742 teachers represent 1.6 per cent of the total 46,000 interns.