The hiring of 46,000 intern teachers on permanent and pensionable terms is set to be suspended indefinitely because the budget for their employment was contained in the Finance Bill, 2024, which has now been rejected.
A source at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has told the Nairobi Law Monthly that unless the intern teachers are hired by Friday, June 28, then their contracts will automatically expire when the current financial year ends on Sunday, June 30.
The teachers, who handle Junior Secondary School (JSS) Grades Seven and Eight in 32,469 public primary schools, were to be hired as soon as the Finance Bill became law and took effect from July 1. That will now not happen after President William Ruto said he had conceded to public demands for the Bill to be rejected in its entirety.
“Taking into consideration the widespread expression of dissatisfaction by members of the public on the contents of the Finance Bill, 2024, now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred in me… by the Constitution, and having reservations on the contents of the Bill in its entirety, I decline to assent to the Finance Bill, 2024,” President Ruto said in his memorandum to Parliament, signed on June 26.
Parliament is now expected to convene a special session to withdraw the Bill and set the stage for the Budget-making process to start a fresh. This is likely to take upwards of six months.
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On June 16, the Employment and Labour Relations Court found that the TSC had broken the law in employing 60,000 intern teachers for one year without offering them permanent and pensionable jobs.
In his ruling, Justice Byrum Ongaya said the commission had violated the interns’ right to fair labour practice by giving them internship positions, yet they were qualified for full time jobs and had teaching licenses.
He also said TSC had no mandate to hire interns and was obligated to employ staff on permanent and pensionable terms.
“The respondents have not exhibited statutory regulatory or policy arrangements that would entitle the first respondent (TSC) to employ interns,” the judge ruled. “Ideally, the first respondent should employ registered teachers upon terms that are not discriminatory and to meet the optimal staffing needs in public schools.”
That ruling now means that with the Finance Bill thrown out, the permanent and pensionable contracts for the intern teachers will become void at midnight on Sunday, June 30.
With schools re-opening on Monday after the mid-term break, the interns will not be required to report to work given that the Labour Court already declared their internships null, void and illegal.
And with the Finance Bill rejected, TSC will lack the legal backing — and the money — to hire the interns on permanent terms. It, therefore, has to wait for the conclusion of the people-driven Budget making process for it to reconsider hiring the teachers.
The other implication is that learners who will report for Grades Seven and Eight in public primary schools will have to go without teachers, since most of those affected were handling JSS classes.
In May, JSS teachers went on strike for three weeks demanding to be employed on permanent and pensionable terms.
The strike was in response to a directive by President William Ruto to extend their internship contracts by one more year.
The teachers called off their strike on June 1 and signed a return-to-work formula through the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet). As part of the agreement between the union and the employer, the teachers were to be hired on permanent terms from Monday next week, when the 2024-25 financial year starts.
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