The government has no money to employ an additional 20,000 Junior School (JS) teachers, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has revealed.
Speaking to Citizen TV on Thursday night, Mbadi revealed there was a challenge in mobilizing resources to adjust the teachers’ salaries amid a looming teachers’ strike. That means the government cannot further commit money for the employment of new teachers.
“We don’t have resources to recruit JS teachers permanently, and the additional 20,000 positions were cut from the estimates. There is a shortfall of about Sh13 billion unless we make budget adjustments, which we don’t have space for,” he said.
The CS added that there are insufficient funds to confirm the positions of JS teachers currently on internship, a key demand from teachers’ unions.
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A sum of Sh18.3 billion had been set aside by the government to hire teachers interning in public schools. The move has, however, exploded into widespread rage among teachers’ unions, including the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers, the Kenya National Union of Teachers, and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers.
The unions have issued concurrent strike action notices, demanding full implementation of the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The other demands include the immediate recruitment of 20,000 new JS teachers, immediate remittance of all third-party deductions, and a commitment to starting discussions for a new CBA.
Unless the issues are solved before August 26, a strike looms, according to the unions.
The unions remain unbowed despite the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) announcing the release of Sh13.5 billion for the implementation of phase two of the existing CBA.
According to TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia, the funds were released following strategic talks between the Commission and the teachers’ unions as directed by President William Ruto.
She has called on the unions to withdraw the strike notices to avert disruption of learning activities as schools get ready to reopen for the third term next week.
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