Employ JSS teachers on permanent and pensionable terms, Kuppet

Bungoma,

Friday, December 1, 2023,

KNA by Roseland Lumwamu

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) is now calling on the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to consider Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers who are currently on internship for permanent and pensionable terms.

Bungoma has 793 JSS centers and 1,586 Junior Secondary school teachers.

David Barasa, Bungoma branch Kuppet Chairman said that the move will motivate the young teachers to be more productive 

He spoke in Bungoma on Wednesday when JSS teachers staged protests at Kanduyi NG-CDF offices.

It is frustrating to the teachers’ fraternity that teachers who graduated recently are being given employment letters by politicians yet some teachers graduated a long time ago and they have not been employed,” he said.

The Unionist said that it is only ethical for teachers who graduate after others to wait for those who graduated earlier to be employed first.

“Politicians should stop meddling with the teachers' issues, let those who graduated first be given jobs before the recent ones,” Barasa said.

Barasa called on the Kuppet national office led by Secretary General Akello Misori and Chairman Omboko Milemba to take up the matter and engage with TSC to consider confirming all JSS teachers to permanent and pensionable terms.

“We have been in Trans- Nzoia, Narok, Vihiga, and Kericho counties and JSS teachers are demanding to be included on permanent terms by TSC,” the unionist noted, adding that TSC establishment has no mandate to employ anybody on internship.

He stated, “JSS teachers are graduatests and their welfare ought to be taken care of.”

However, the unionist pointed out that if TSC continues frustrating teachers, the young teachers will opt to quit the teaching profession and join banks while some will go abroad to look for better-paying jobs meaning Kenya will face a teachers’ shortage in the future.

Barasa also stated that domiciling JSS in the primary section has become unattainble as the primary section has no infrastructure to accommodate the practical essence of the Competency-based curriculum (CBC).

“In secondary schools, we have infrastructure that can support CBC learning unlike in primary sections,” Barasa noted.

He said that the taskforce that was established by the late CS for Education Prof. George Magoha was political and did little to help CBC implementation.

He stated that Kuppet will fully support the call that JSS teachers be employed on permanent and pensionable terms calling on Kuppet's Secretary General to prepare a memorandum and present it to TSC CEO Nancy Macharia.   

Courtesy; KNA