In fulfillment of the Jubilee government’s 2017 election pledges
MPs have agreed to a proposal by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to recruit 87,393 interns to bridge the staffing gap.
Knut and Kuppet top officials had previously warned of industrial action should the Government press on with the proposals to employ teachers on short-term contracts with claims each teacher would be paid Sh15,000 per month as opposed to the Sh21,757 that newly employed teachers take home.
In the new move, the National Assembly Education Committee, chaired by Julius Melly (Tinderet), has directed Ms Macharia to develop a policy to be tabled in Parliament to support the recruitment.
The TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia has however said it requires up to Sh20 billion to recruit the intern teachers.
The National Assembly Education Committee has asked TSC to develop a policy framework and forward it before the committee by Monday next week.
If the process is fast-tracked, Kenyan schools will receive more intern teachers to relieve the overstretched staff.
MPs, however, want the policy to indicate specifically the terms of employment and at what stage the interns would be absorbed into permanent terms.
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary General Wilson Sossion, who is also a member of the Education Committee, said the union would support the policy as long as it respected labour laws.
“The policy must state that once teachers graduate they shall be absorbed as interns and also state that they shall work for a certain period of time after which they will be automatically employed on permanent basis,” said Mr Sossion.He said that as long as the remuneration and terms of engagement of the teachers were not clear, the union would oppose the course. “If the interns will not be automatically absorbed, then we shall oppose the initiative,” said Sossion.