Junior Secondary School Teachers (JSS Teachers) have signed a return-to-work formula to mark the end of their three-week strike.
The JSS teachers, who were seeking permanent employment and pensions, have received assurances that interns will be hired in the next financial year and all disciplinary letters issued by the Teacher Service Commission (TSC) will be retracted.
Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General Akelo Misori announced that the government will hire 26,000 teachers on permanent contracts as the strike concludes.
“We have agreed that the TSC will retract all the warning letters issued to JSS teachers,” Misori told journalists after the signing of the agreement.
“The government has allocated funds to hire 26,000 teachers on a permanent basis,” he added.
KUPPET stepped in to help the JSS teachers sign the return-to-work formula as they do not have a trade union yet.
JSS Teachers Demand
Other issues that are yet to be ironed out in the list of demands issued in the JSS teachers’ strike is determination of whether JSS should be domiciled in primary schools or existing secondary schools.
On May 24th, The National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairperson Ndindi Nyoro had revealed that the government will employ Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
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Speaking on Citizen TV, Nyoro said the government has set aside Ksh.300 billion in the 2024/2025 Financial Budget for the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to employ JSS intern teachers who are currently on strike.
“TSC is the number one highest funded institution in Kenya with over Ksh.300 billion. We want to confirm JSS teachers, and I want to reassure them that we are going to provide money for the confirmation of permanent and pensionable terms to intern JSS teachers,” Ndindi Nyoro said.
Root of Strike
The dispute between the JSS teachers and TSC stems from a case that the intern teachers filed at the Employment and Labour Relations Court that decided in their favor by stopping recruitment on contract.
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According to the ruling, TSC was found to be capable of hiring teachers on permanent and pensionable terms by the Court.
However, the Commission managed to obtain orders to stay implementation of the judgment until August 1 as it pursues an appeal before Court.
At the JSS level, only 687 teachers are employed on permanent terms, with about 38,863 teachers being on contract. On the other hand, another 6,000 “interns” are currently deployed in primary schools and 450 in secondary schools.
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