TSC defer confirmation of intern teachers, ask them to renew contract

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has started to invite intern teachers whose contract expires in September to renew their internship contract days after it deferred their confirmation.

This means that the intern teachers will serve for more than one year contrary to what the initial internship agreement reads.

Already some County Directors including Baringo, Tana River and Nandi have sent text messages to headteachers requiring them to align their teachers to renew the contract.

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.

Though President William Ruto appended his signature to the Supplementary Appropriation (No. 2) Bill 2024 paving way for their confirmation, TSC says the amount allocated is not enough to confirm the teachers this year.

The Commission says the amount is short of the Sh30 billion it needs to pay the intern teachers under the new terms for a whole year until , July 2025, the next budget allocation.

TSC estimates the Sh18.7 billion budget provided for the conversion can only cater for the interns for a period of six months.

The budget gap has made the Commission to defer the confirmation to permanent terms for the 46,000 intern teachers to January 2025.

TSC will issue permanent and pensionable (PNP) letters to the intern teachers in December, paving way for new salaries in January.

Knut and Kuppet have opposed the postponement of confirmation for intern teachers. In a joint statement the two unions want the teachers converted to PNP as from 1st July or they take industrial action.

“The unions demand the immediate confirmation to all current intern teachers of their employment on permanent and pensionable terms effective 1 July 2024 and the remittance of their full salaries for the month which are now in arrears,” they said in a statement.

They have threated a national strike starting 26th August should TSC fail to yield to their demands.

Currently the intern teachers earn a monthly stipend of sh 20,000 for the junior and 15,000 for the primary school intern teachers.

However the teachers lose around sh 3,000 from their monthly stipend from deductions such as housing fund, NSSF and NHIF.

After confirmation the P1 teachers will start at job group B5 where they will earn a basic salary of sh 21,756 in minimum to a maximum of sh 27,195 after serving for three years.

The teachers will be entitled to sh 4,000 as commuter allowance and sh 4,000 as leave allowance paid once a year in January.

They will be entitled to a house allowance of sh 3,200 per month except those who live in Nairobi sh 6,750, those in major Municipalities; Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii and Kitale sh 4,500 and those in other former minor Municipalities sh 3,850.

Those working in hardship areas will get sh 6,600 as hardship allowance. The teachers will also get comprehensive medical cover paid through their monthly medical allowance.

The teachers will get automatic promotion to job group C1 after serving for three years.

The junior school intern teachers will start at job group C2 which is the entry grade for graduate teachers.

Here the teachers will earn a basic salary of sh 34,955 to a maximum of sh 43,694 after serving for three years.

The teachers will get sh 5,000 as commuter allowance and sh 6,000 as leave allowance paid once in a year.

They will be entitled to sh 7,500 as house allowance except those who live in Nairobi sh 16,500, those in major Municipalities; Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Nyeri, Eldoret, Thika, Kisii and Kitale sh 12,800 and those in other former minor Municipalities sh 9,600.

Those working in hardship areas will get sh 10,900 as hardship allowance. The teachers will also get comprehensive medical cover paid through their monthly medical allowance.

The teachers will get automatic promotion to job group C3 after serving for three years.