TSC Tells Interns To Renew Contract or Leave It

TSC Tells Interns To Renew Contract or Leave It

TSC Tells Interns To Renew Contract or Leave It

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has made it clear that it will only promote intern teachers to full-time positions following a required two-year internship. The CEO of TSC, Dr. Nancy Macharia, recently stated before the Senate Education Committee that the present intern teacher’s contracts would be renewed beginning in January 2024.

Macharia did stress that budgetary factors must be taken into account before  changing the current cohort of 46,000 intern teachers to permanent and  pensionable (pnp) terms. She said that the commission does not have the funding for this kind of  conversion, but she did say that she would take them on if the money was made  available.

Dr. Macharia outlined that the earliest these primary and secondary school intern teachers could be absorbed into the pnp payroll is anticipated to be in 2025. The conversion timeline, she noted, would be determined by the month of the teachers’ initial recruitment.

This information reiterates statements made by Antonina Lentoijoni, TSC Director of Teachers Staffing, two weeks prior, emphasizing that intern teachers would automatically transition to pnp status after two years of service. Lentoijoni clarified that there are distinct groups of interns based on their start dates—those who commenced on February 1 and those on September 1.

The 46,000 intern teachers currently serving were recruited in two batches: 20,000 in February and another 20,000 in August. Additionally, in January 2022, TSC assigned 1,995 intern teachers to schools and renewed the internship contracts for 4,005 teachers whose one-year terms concluded in December 2021, resulting in a total of 46,000 intern teachers.

Notably, TSC intends to hire 20,000 more intern teachers to assist with Grade 8 teaching beginning in January of the following year. A monthly stipend of Kshs. 15,000 is provided to interns affiliated with primary schools, and Kshs. 20,000 is provided to those affiliated with secondary schools; however, these amounts are subject to deduction.

Junior secondary school (JSS) intern teachers are currently protesting and demonstrating in large numbers against the extension of their internship contracts for an additional year. At least eleven counties have participated in protests against the TSC’s two-year internship requirement; some interns are calling for permanent employment after the first year.

Intern teachers in the counties of Meru and Kisii are also pushing for a reassessment of stipends, suggesting that secondary school interns should receive at least Ksh 25,000 per month instead of Ksh 20,000. Should TSC fail to grant the teachers permanent and pensionable status, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) threatened to take industrial action in January.