Siaya: Over 20,000 Junior Secondary School intern teachers whose contracts are lapsing at the end of the year have threatened to down their tools should the government fail to confirm their employment status. The teachers demand that the government put them on permanent and pensionable terms of service at the expiry of their contracts, failure to which they may opt for industrial action.
According to Kenya News Agency, the interns, who have been on contractual employment, want the Teachers’ Service Commission to absorb them fully into the payroll instead of engaging fresh interns to replace those who have exited service as advertised recently. Addressing the media in Siaya town, intern JSS teachers led by their Siaya County Chairman, Lawrence Seda, accused the government of lying to the public about the terms of their contracts. ‘We only signed a one-year non-renewal contract but not two years as has always been purported,’ Seda stated.
Seda challenged the government to provide accurate figures of the teachers who have been employed, expressing concern that senior officials claim to have engaged 76,000 teachers when, in reality, only 56,000 have been employed. ‘If they want it to be 76,000, let them confirm the 20,000 of us,’ he added.
A member of the group, Austin Shikuku, stated that all intern JSS teachers have vowed not to renew their contracts at the end of the year and warned parents that there will be no science learning countrywide unless the government converts them into permanent and pensionable employees.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) union Siaya county chairman, Robert Ouko, expressed concerns about the uncertainty faced by the 20,000 intern teachers as their contracts come to an end. Ouko emphasized that it is KUPPET’s position that all interns be confirmed in their positions. ‘It is important that the government fast tracks the confirmation of the intern teachers to ensure that learning continues when the year begins,’ he stated.
