EMPLOYMENT
A Member of Parliament (MP) now wants the government to employ junior secondary school teachers as permanent and pensionable officers. “The Kenya Kwanza government must now fulfill its promise of placing these recruits as full-fledged government officers now that they have completed their one-year contract,” said the member of Parliament for Kisumu West, Rosa Buyu.
While speaking at a fundraising event for the vulnerable students in Suna West, Migori County, Ms Buyu, told the Ministry of Education to honour its earlier promise in order to earn the confidence of Kenyans.
Buyu, who is a teacher by profession, echoed a court ruling that declared the placing of the teachers on contract term as illegal, saying ignoring of the ruling was frustrating the young teachers. “The JSS teachers have a genuine concern especially after the Court ruled that it is illegal to continue treating them as contract employees,” she noted.
A section of students during the fundraising event for the vulnerable students in Suna West, Migori County. Photo by Gabriela Xavier.
“The government has yet again announced that it is going to employ 26 000 new teachers and, for that reason, I am asking the same government to think of who must get first priority for permanent employment between the current JSS teachers and those being brought on board in the near future,”
The MP said that some of the JSS teachers are those who graduated way back in 2016 and should be given the first priority over those who graduated in recent years.
The legislator however, rebuked the act of the government of employing the newly graduated students of 2022 stating it frustrates the teachers who have been on the waiting list for a long period of time
She regretted that the Junior Secondary School teachers must keep up with odd times while toiling with too many lessons to cover, only to get home with a paltry Sh17, 000 monthly salary. The MP noted that many of the teachers are sole breadwinners for their families and have many responsibilities to take care of, yet they have been receiving meager remunerations.