Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) John Mbadi has admitted that the country has no financial capacity to employ 20,000 Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
“We don’t have resources to recruit JSS teachers on permanent and for the additional 20,000 that was reduced in the estimates. There is a shortfall of about Ksh.13 billion,” he statyed.
“There is no money availed for conversions unless we do budget adjustments which we really don’t have space for. This year has been challenging. We really had to look around and see how we can raise the money we made available for teachers for their salary adjustments.”
This comes as the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) announcement on Wednesday that their nationwide strike, set for Monday August 26, 2024, will proceed as scheduled.
The unions attributed the decision to the Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) failure to address critical grievances raised during a meeting held on July 16, 2024 to resolve the planned industrial action and issues affecting the welfare of teachers.
The issued raised included the immediate recruitment of 20,000 new JSS teachers, prompt remittance of all third-part deductions and a commitment to begin discussions on the new round of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
On Thursday, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos revealed that his Ministry is facing a shortage of funding to address all the demands in the education sector.
The CS’ remarks contradicted those of TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia, who on Wednesday stated that Ksh.13 billion had been released for the implementation of phase 2 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
“I beseech all teachers to report to school on Monday for the start of the third term now that the funds have bee released for the implementation of phase 2 of the CBA and addresses all the issues,” stated MS Macharia on Tuesday.
