Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers in Meru County have vowed not to return to class until the government enrolls them on Permanent and Pensionable (PnP) terms.
The teachers who staged demonstrations in Tigania Central and Imenti North sub – counties accused the government of abusing their services by failing to confirm them on PnP after working for two years as interns.
Speaking to the media, the teachers led by Gikundi Karuti, decried failure by the government to address their grievances and keep its promise to confirm about 26,000 teachers on PnP.
“We are not going back to class come rain come sunshine unless the government compensate us for the time we have worked while being underpaid and confirm us on permanent terms,” said Karuti from Tigania Central.
The aggrieved teachers who matched to their various area Teachers Service Commission (TSC) offices to seek addresses, demanded immediate release of funds by the government to pay for the immediate confirmation of interns by the TCS.
“We are not scared of being intimidated but we will continue downing tools and sabotaging learning until the government addresses our plight because we cannot continue offering services while earning peanuts on intern programme,” said Carolyne Gakii, a JSS teacher.
They further blamed the TSC of using discrimination method while employing JSS teachers.
“We want TSC to be clear on the formula they are using to put a 2016 graduate on internship and employ a 2023 graduate on PnP basis. We want to know if this is not corruption,” said one Karuti, A JSS teacher.
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At the same time, they urged the commission to respect court orders issued by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
“TSC had a formula to employ teachers in the past, what happened to this? When they employed us on years of graduation, why is this not happening now,” said another teacher, Miriti Avezi.
They added that TSC should come clear on the time frame for contract, adding that the commission should stop ignoring teachers’ welfare.
The protesting teachers who came out in large numbers also called on KNUT and KUPPET to support and push the government on addressing the issue to pave way for smooth learning process upon school reopening.
Efforts to reach the TSC for comment were futile.
By John Majau
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