Permanent jobs for intern teachers on course, Ruto affirms
Permanent jobs for intern teachers on course, Ruto affirms
Permanent jobs for intern teachers on course, Ruto affirms
According to President William Ruto, plans to convert 46,000 junior secondary school intern instructors into permanent positions are proceeding as planned.
The Finance Bill, 2024, which was intended to cover the 2024–2025 budget deficit, failed, but the President stated on Friday that the government will still look for methods to raise money in order to recruit them.
President Willliam Ruto on Friday urged intern teachers to be patient in finding funds for their employment, so they may have to wait longer in their pursuit of higher compensation and permanent work terms.
Initially, the Ruto administration had set aside Sh18.3 billion to hire intern teachers.The fall of the bill had created a budget hole of Sh346 billion but Ruto said the government would not borrow the whole amount but Sh169 billion.
Addressing the nation from State House, Ruto said the government will rationalise its budget to accommodate the teachers as promised.
The President said that since the Finance Bill was rejected, the government has since consulted extensively to strike a middle ground between borrowing money and striking austerity measures.
The Finance Bill 2024 was withdrawn in response to widespread public outcry and street protests, which is why the projected budget cuts are occurring.
The measure aimed to close the fiscal deficit in the budget for the 2024–2025 fiscal year.
“We will be proposing budget cuts of Sh177 billion and borrow the difference,” he said.
“Whatever we are going to borrow will increase the budget deficit from 3.3 per cent to 4.6 per cent of the GDP, but still lower than last year.”
In a statement following a Parliamentary Group Meeting by the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition on June 18, National Assembly Finance Committee Chair Kimani Kuria said enough funds have been allocated for confirmation of the 46,000 interns.
“The PG was also informed that adequate funds -KSh18 billion – have been provided for the employment of all 46,000 Junior Secondary teachers who are on internship,” Kimani stated.
As the pioneer class advances to Grade 9 in January 2025, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) plans to hire 20,000 interns starting next month in an effort to address the junior school teaching shortage.
“The funds have also been provided to hire 20,000 interns next month. The policy is now to transition teachers from internship to permanent and pensionable terms,” he added.
However, the Sh18 billion could fall short of the funds required to employ all the interns with TSC stating that it required Sh30 billion to hire all 46,000 interns into permanent terms by July 1, 2024.
This could mean that TSC will be forced to employ a section of the intern teachers first while the others await extra allocation for the confirmation to permanent and pensionable.
The internship programme began in 2019 with those employed to teach secondary being paid Sh20,000 while their primary counterparts get Sh15,000.
During their demos, the JSS interns argued that the amount was too little to sustain their livelihoods.
21,550 junior school and 4,000 elementary school intern educators were hired by TSC in February 2023.
450 intern teachers for secondary schools were hired in April 2023, while 18,000 intern teachers for junior schools and 2,000 instructors for basic schools were hired in September 2023.