Over 20,000 Junior Secondary School intern teachers whose contracts are lapsing at the end of the year have threatened to down their tools should the government fail to confirm their employment status.
The teachers demand that the government put them on permanent and pensionable terms of service at the expiry of their contracts failure to which they may opt for industrial action.
The interns who have been on contractual employment want the Teachers’ Service Commission to absorb them fully in the payroll instead of engaging fresh interns to replace those who have exited service as advertised recently.
Addressing the media in Siaya town, intern JSS teachers led by their Siaya County Chairman, Lawrence Seda accused the government of lying to the public that they signed a two-year contract.
“We only signed a one-year non-renewal contract but not two years as has always been purported,” said Seda.
Seda challenged the government to give the correct figures of the teachers who have been employed, adding that it was worrying that senior government officials keep on saying that they have engaged 76,000 teachers when the truth is that only 56,000 have been employed.
“If they want it to be 76,000, let them confirm the 20,000 of us,” he said.
A member, Austin Shikuku said all intern JSS teachers have vowed not to renew their contracts at the end of the year and warned parents that there will be no science learning countrywide unless the government converts them into permanent and pensionable employees.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) union Siaya county chairman, Robert Ouko said the 20,000 intern teachers were not sure of their fate as their contract comes to an end.
Ouko said that it was the stand of KUPPET that all the interns be confirmed to their positions.“It is important that the government fast tracks the confirmation of the intern teachers to ensure that learning continues when the year begins,” he said.
By Philip Onyango
