Education
Junior Secondary Teachers (JSS) intern teachers in Kilifi have threatened to down their tools once schools open if they are not confirmed into permanent and pensionable basis and compensated for the period that they have served as interns.
This is following the court’s ruling that deemed Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) internship programme illegal stating that giving them internship positions while they were qualified with teaching licences violated their rights to fair labour practice.
Speaking to the media when holding peaceful demonstrations on Monday in Kilifi, Azani Ngumbao, a JSS intern teacher in Kilifi, stated that the more than 1,200 JSS teachers in the county were tired of being abused by TSC and the government as a whole.
“What we are asking is for the government to confirm and compensate us for the time we have been under internship. We want TSC to respect the court’s ruling that internship is illegal,” Ngumbao said.
He added that the gross salary of Sh20,000 was very little; not enough to sustain their daily needs and that it should be subjected to the tax deductions that other permanent employees adhere to.
Andrew Lelei, a JSS intern based in Kilifi South sub-county, said that failure to meet the teacher’s needs would only place the Curriculum Based Curriculum (CBC) programme in a compromising position as it relied on them to run successfully.
“We as the interns have suffered long enough. They are using us to propel the CBC programme and yet we are not in their payrolls. If they do not compensate and confirm us it means this CBC programme will be compromised,” Lelei decried.
He also revealed that there were some Members of Parliament that were unfairly handing out employment letters to new graduates, a situation that left behind older graduates who were more qualified but have not yet acquired permanent employment status.
James Moseti, a JSS intern in Ganze sub-county, asked TSC to clarify to the public who between the Commission and Parliament was supposed to be employing teachers in the country.
He stressed that if their demands were not met, they would not report to work once learning resumed countrywide.
“We are tired, we have suffered; people working in hardship areas and only earning Sh17, 000. We are telling TSC the schools better remain closed because once they reopen, there will be no teacher in any Junior Secondary School classroom,” Moseti stressed.