The Teachers Service Commission has revealed the reason why they opted to recruit teachers on internship terms first and not on permanent and pensionable terms straight away.
The TSC Chief Executive Officer (CE) Dr Nancy Macharia informed Members of Parliament (MPs) on Tuesday that after one year of service, intern teachers will be absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms.
“If we want to recruit more teachers we have to allow ourselves to have more interns then they will be turned to P and P eventually,” said Dr Nancy Macharia.
The TSC CEO said the Commission can only take in around 8,000 teachers if they directly recruit them on permanent and pensionable terms.
“They will be on P and P in 2025, they serve as interns for one year then they progress to be absorbed,” she added.
Dr Nancy Macharia was responding to Narok County Women Rep Rebecca Tonkei’s inquiry into how long it would take for an intern teacher to be absorbed.
“If you recruited 20,000 this year what is the plan to have them on P and P and for how long will they be interns?” posed Tonkei
Lugari Mp Nabii Nabwera said that running the sector on interns is not a sustainable plan.
He asked why the Commission does not want to recruit teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
“What is the reason you do not want to recruit them this year but you want to recruit them in 2024?” he asked.
According to a memo signed by TSC Director of Staffing Joseph Mugele dated the 11th of January, all teachers serving on internship terms in 2022 were absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms.
“The interviews for the exercise commence on January 13th and recruitment documents are scheduled for February 6,” read the memo.
The director requested that intern teachers not be removed from the payroll.
This, in his view, would help in waiting for their employees under the new terms.
In a statement issued in December, TSC revealed that 10,000 of the teachers will be employed on permanent and pensionable terms while 25,550 will be employed on internship terms.
According to reports, 9,000 of the vacancies are for permanent secondary school teachers and 1,000 for primary school teachers while 21,550 slots are allocated for intern teachers for Junior Secondary Schools.
The Commission said that another 4,000 intern teachers are set to be recruited for primary schools.