Gov’t Approve 26 Billion Budget December Confirmation of 25,000 TSC Intern Teachers

By | March 8, 2024
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The Education budget for the upcoming year includes a provision to confirm at least 25,000 teachers currently serving on internship terms onto permanent and pensionable terms by the year’s end. The allocation for this purpose is sh 26 billion.

In the coming July budget, at least $ 26 billion has been allocated to absorb the teachers into the permanent and pensionable (PNP) payroll.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) received the lion’s share of the Education budget, totalling sh 369.94 billion. Part of this allocation will be used for the remuneration and promotion of teachers.

The Commission is set to confirm the 20,000 intern teachers it recruited in February 2023, whose second internship term concludes this year. Graduate intern teachers will be placed in job group C2, while those with PTE certificates will start in grade B5.

Currently, the TSC has 46,000 teachers on its payroll serving on internship terms. However, the Commission will only confirm interns to permanent terms after they have served on internship for two years.

The funds for confirming the teachers are now factored into the 2024 – 2025 budget. An allocation to employ another 20,000 intern teachers was also captured this year.

Recently, TSC Chief Executive Dr Nancy Macharia stated that they would initiate the recruitment of at least 20,000 new teachers to address staffing gaps in junior schools. TSC has acknowledged severe teacher shortages in junior secondary schools, with 99,045 teachers required against the current number of 56,928.

Dr. Macharia emphasized that the government is continuously funding schools to bridge the staffing gap progressively. In the next financial year, TSC has requested funds to hire 20,000 teachers to address the gap.

Simultaneously, TSC is deploying P1 teachers to junior schools after revealing that primary schools have a surplus of 18,194 teachers following a reduction of two classes due to the new curriculum.

The Commission has advertised 6,000 deployment slots for graduate P1 teachers to apply for promotion to junior schools. Serving primary school teachers with a degree in the secondary option, with a C+ in KCSE and a C+ in two teaching subjects, were asked to apply online by March 18, 2024.

TSC has previously assured intern teachers that they will be converted to PNP in January 2025 after serving a two-year internship contract.

President William Ruto announced that his government has changed the policy, extending the internship period to two years in all government agencies and departments. Ruto assured junior school intern teachers of employment once they complete the two-year contract, stating that it is now a government practice for intern teachers to work for two years before being employed on permanent and pensionable terms. He made this announcement at the State House.

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