Junior secondary school (JSS) teachers are up in arms requesting the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to compensate and confirm them.
The JSS teachers are part of the 46,000 recruited in February and September last year and deployed to junior school. They are demanding pay for the 16 months they served and were not duly compensated.
What JSS teachers want
Emmanuel Akendo, a JSS teacher based in Kisumu said that the court ruled that internship was unconstitutional, illegal and discriminatory.
He made three suggestions for TSC to follow if they want the teachers to resume back to school; compensate all interns for 16 months served and are being unpaid, confirm all 46000 interns or fire the tutors if they can’t be confirmed.
Stephen Samba, another JSS teacher, requested JSC to stop turning a blind eye and and obey the court order.
“We are not relenting on this matter and asking TSC to come out and obey the court matter. We are willing to come and sit down with them to bring the strike to an end, but only under two conditions, that they will offer confirmation and compensation, without the two, we will not be going back to school,” Samba added.
JSS strike
After a court ruling last month, the teachers have stayed away from school demanding employment on permanent and pensionable (PnP) terms.
Some 38,863 teachers on contract are deployed to JSS, while only 687 are on permanent and pensionable terms. Six thousand interns are in primary schools and 450 others are in secondary schools.
On Tuesday, May 21, 2024, the Kenyan Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) supported the intern teachers’ strike and urged the government to provide funding for tutor hire.
In three letters addressed to Parliament, the National Treasury, and the Teachers Service Commission, Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori sought their intervention for learning and teaching to resume.
“For the second day running, learning has been paralysed in all JSS classes as the teachers protest,” read part of the letter by Akello Misori.
Over 2.5 million JSS students are affected by the strike, which is unfolding amid prolonged school closures due to extensive flooding nationwide.
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