KNUT Pushes For Intern Teachers Confirmation. The Kenya National Union of Teachers has called on the Teachers Service Commission to give intern teachers Permanent and Pensionable terms of Service after working for a year instead of two.
Knut First Vice National Chairman Malel Langat urged the teacher’s employer to endeavour to ensure all intern teachers are converted into permanent and pensionable within the first year of service.
“This is because continued discrimination of these teachers has adversely affected their performance in schools,” Langat said.
He spoke on Thursday during the Imarisha Sacco Annual Delegates Meeting (ADM) in Kericho.
Langat noted that the Employment Act 2007 Part 5 (2) (3)(4) speaks to discrimination as a violation of the fundamental labour right
Though he lauded the government for employing more teachers in 2023, he said the interns are having it rough.
“In as much as we appreciate the government for employing the 56000 teachers within its first year in office, the intern teachers are suffering without bitterness in silence,” Langat said.
KNUT Pushes For Intern Teachers Confirmation
The Knut Vice Chair termed it a mockery to have graduate teachers earn Sh20,000 and P1 teachers earn Sh15,000 with the biting skyrocketing cost of living and high inflation rates.
“For how long shall the government continue renewing intern teachers’ contracts?” he posed.
Langat said TSC ignores intern teachers’ plight with impunity.
On December 17, 2023, during a media roundtable, President William Ruto said the intern teachers will have to serve for two years before they get permanent contracts.
Ruto said it is now a government practice for the intern teachers to work for two years before they are employed on Permanent and Pensionable terms.
The President said that the JSS intern teachers should relax and go through the process.
“The JSS intern teachers will be at work in January. We had promised that before being employed on permanent and pensionable terms in all the sectors, they must do an internship for two years,” he said.
The President said that the JSS intern teachers will be prioritized for employment after two years.
He said the government is also conducting the internship process in other sectors.
“We have just gotten a cohort of interns at the Public Service Commission because internship is part of the learning and job process,” he said.