Education

Junior Secondary School teachers suspend protests to allow budget passage

Intern teachers from junior secondary schools address journalists in Isiolo town on May 13, 2024, during a protest over poor pay. (Photo: Waweru Wairimu/EV)

By Lucy Mumbi | Sunday, June 9, 2024

The decision follows productive negotiations with the National Assembly’s Labour and Education committee, resulting in the approval of some key demands and their presentation to the budget committee.

Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers have agreed to suspend their ongoing protests to allow the national budget to be passed on Thursday.

The decision follows productive negotiations with the National Assembly’s Labour and Education committee, resulting in the approval of some key demands and their presentation to the budget committee.

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The 46,000 Junior Secondary School teachers have been on strike since April 17, 2024, demanding to be employed on Permanent and Pensionable terms. The graduate teachers were hired as interns in 2019.

The teachers expressed optimism that Parliament's engagement with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) will ensure their demands are met.

JSS National Spokesperson Bonface Omari said the TSC should release the circular about their confirmation of Permanent and Pensionable terms immediately after the budget has been passed.

“After a meeting of JSS County leaders, we resolved to suspend our demonstrations to pave the way for Parliament to pass the 2024/2025 budget on Thursday. Please note that this means the strike that began on April 17, 2024, has not been called off, but suspended until July 5, 2024. By that date, we should have gotten communication on the status of the confirmation of the 46,000 teachers,” Omari said on Saturday.

Volunteers

All intern teachers have been directed to resume classes starting Monday, June 10, 2024. The JSS leadership said they would be going back to class as volunteers and not as trainees.

“After consulting our legal team, we therefore wish to inform them that we shall go to the classes to teach from Monday not as interns, but as volunteers. We are doing this volunteerism because we seem to be the only people in the education sector who care for the children of Mama Mboga,” Omari said.

He further warned that protests would resume if the TSC fails to comply with the agreed terms by July 5, 2024, and any misappropriation of funds by the commission will also prompt a return to demonstrations.

“We are aware there are cases in court, we have appealed, and this should not affect the confirmation of teachers. We know the internship was declared illegal,” JSS Secretary General Daniel Mureithi added.

The leaders said the committees urged them to suspend their demonstrations as they pass the budget.

The committee further requested the striking intern teachers to give TSC time to receive the money and prepare for their immediate recruitment.

"In respect of the seriousness with which they have so far handled our issues, and for the great love and care we have for the children of the poor Kenyan parents, we have decided to take their word and suspend our demonstrations," Omaro noted.

He reiterated that qualified and registered teachers should not be enslaved in the name of internship.

“We are still in pain and shocked that the government would actually use qualified teachers for years as slaves in this nation. But a strike is frustrating to our dear poor students. A strike is damaging and frustrating to us teachers. A strike is not something to be cherished,” he said.

“Teaching is a noble profession and many times we make sacrifices for the sake of the future of our nation but we have shown TSC and the government that they cannot take advantage of our caring nature to exploit us or enslave us.”