From July 1, 26,000 JSS teachers will receive new, higher salaries. The positive changes will not have to wait until January 2025, as TSC had proposed; this followed intervention by the National Assembly’s House Committee on Education and Research team. In their presentation, the Teachers Service Commission had indicated to us that the interns will be converted to permanent and pensionable in January 2025 next year. Which we actually felt as a committee the financial year begins in July… Hon Julius Melly, Chairman Education and Research Committee. The JSS tutors have been on strike since the schools opened for the second term. They have been pleading to the TSC to employ them on a permanent and pensionable basis and to review their salaries upwards. The employing body, TSC, had started threatening the striking teachers by asking them to write a letter to ‘show cause’ and explain why their engagement should not be terminated. The 38,600 intern teachers were offered the opportunity to work as JSS tutors, hoping they would be employed permanently. The employer has also required them to teach subjects that are not their specialty. Since 2019, TSC has been employing interns through a controversial internship program. Those engaged in primary schools earn a stipend of Ksh 15,000, and interns in Secondary schools take home Ksh 20,000. However, the JSS intern teachers will now enjoy a robust health care scheme, receive a basic pay of Ksh 36,621, and receive a house allowance of between 9,600 and 16,500, varying depending on their work locations. They will also be given commuter and leave allowances. Narok JSS teachers protesting The education and research committee were tabling their recommendations before the Budget and Appropriations Committee that Hon Ndindi Nyoro leads. The Budget committee sought to know the expected total cost of the move. What is the cost for hiring on a permanent and pensionable basis all the 46,000 JSS and other interns and bringing back time from January 2025 to July 2024? We would want you to give us the cost… Hon. Ndindi Nyoro Chairman, Budget and Appropriations Committee. The TSC added nearly 20,000 interns to teach at the JSS facilities in September last year. Although the two House Committees seek to have all the interns employed as permanent and pensionable, the fate of this last group hangs in the balance. Since the schools reopened for the second term, the Junior Secondary School Teachers have been on strike, paralyzing learning for JSS students in public schools.