Government injects Sh18b to secure permanent jobs for JSS teachers

TSC Chief Executive Dr Nancy Macharia. [File, Standard]

The over 46,000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) intern teachers could wait until January to get permanent employment.

This is after the government on Monday announced an injection of Sh18 billion to the Teachers Service Commission(TSC) for converting the intern teachers to permanent and pensionable terms.

A communique from State House indicated that Sh18.7 billion had been allocated for JSS intern confirmation.

Higher Education Loans Board was also allocated Sh31.3 billion while the University Funding Board got Sh17 billion for government-sponsored student scholarships.

"After the withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 and the resulting revenue shortfall of Sh344 billion, President William Ruto has assented to the Supplementary Appropriation (No.2) Bill which includes adjustments to reduce expenditures while maintaining essential services in agriculture, health and education, including remuneration enhancements for security officers," the communique reads.

However, the amount is short of the Sh30 billion TSC needs to pay the intern teachers under the new terms for a whole year until the next budget allocation.

The Standard has established that TSC estimates the Sh18 billion budget provided for the conversion can only cater for the interns for a period of six months.

To avert a crisis, stakeholders privy to the situation disclosed that TSC is exploring delayed confirmation of JSS interns so as to shrink the budget required to cater for their salaries.