Intern Teachers To Be Compensated Over ksh 400000 Each. More than 50,000 instructors employed as interns by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) may receive their full wage for the duration of their contract after the court’s April 2024 verdict.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) determined that TSC had illegally implemented internship jobs to teachers. These teachers are already certified and hold teaching certificates (TSC numbers), infringing on their right to fair labor practices.
During the reading of the decision in this case, Justice Byrum Ongaya stated that the TSC commission is not authorized to employ or work with student teachers or interns.This is so because the commission’s mandate is restricted to hiring teachers who are both qualified and officially registered.
Justice Ongaya continued, saying that in order to meet the ideal staffing needs in public schools, particularly junior secondary, the first respondent (TSC) shall hire intern instructors on nondiscriminatory terms.
Intern Teachers To Be Compensated Over ksh 400000 Each
The fate of Junior Secondary is in jeopardy due to a court order that was issued only two weeks before classes resume for the second term.
This is merely due to the fact that the instructors who the court determined to have been subjected to unfair treatment by TSC are also the teachers who have served as the backbone of the Junior Secondary School’s implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
In an effort to address the teacher shortage in schools, particularly in junior secondary schools, the commission developed an internship program.
Court Decision
The court decision comes at a time when the intern teachers are fighting to have the government program suspended and the extension of the intern program for a second year, so they are relieved.
The intern program was originally intended to operate for a year before the interns were taken on permanently and became eligible for pensions. However, this was altered.
President William Ruto, the head of state, stated back in December 2023 that the intern teachers would have to serve an additional year, for a total of two years, before they could be considered for permanent and pensionable terms of recruitment.
After being assigned to a junior secondary school, intern teachers who were trained to teach two topics have been required to teach everything, including pre-technical studies, the arts, creative and performing arts, and sciences, among other disciplines about which they are ignorant because of their lack of specialty.
Intern Teachers To Be Compensated Over ksh 400000 Each
Additionally, interns have been protesting against the deductions the government makes from their monthly salary of sh 20,000, which is now only sh 17,000.
The senior Interns will be biggest beneficiaries of this compensation. Calculation will be done on the number of months teachers have worked with the expected pay. This means compensation could be around 400,000 shillings.
Let’s wait and see how things unfold after the latest court orders.