Uproar as TSC replaces 742 sacked JSS intern teachers

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has replaced some of the 742 Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers recently fired across the country.

A section of JSS teachers in Asome Pioneer Teachers in Kisii have been forced to stop reporting to their schools, with TSC replacing them with new teachers.

This comes exactly two weeks since JSS teachers agreed to get back to classes awaiting confirmation by the teachers’ employer.

Citizen TV talked to some of the affected teachers whose lives have taken a sudden turn for the worse amid harsh economic times in Bomachoge Chache and in South Mugirango in Kisii County.

At Ikoba in Bomachoge Chache, 33-year-old Kerubo is dejected days after she was told never to set foot again in her school despite being one of the pioneer teachers in the JSS within this locality.

She has been grappling with life's challenges and has been indoors for 3 days after she received the unexpected directive compounding her problems.

“Tulikuwa industrial strike na tulirudi after re-tooling, the head teacher told my friends and I that we shouldn't report back to school,” she said.

She stays in a single room, where leftover food is seen on the table and a piece of sugarcane is expected to sustain her the next day and for the rest of the week.

Kerubo wants the government to heed her plight and that of her colleagues, some of who are family breadwinners.

“Tume ya kuajiri walimu inafaa kuobserve transparency…sasa nimefutwa kazi na niko na mtoto wa kupelekwa shule, hii sasa nitawezaje?” She lamented.

A section of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) leadership and other education stakeholders in Kisii are unhappy with TSC's firing of the JSS teachers. 

“It is a sad state of affairs we have in our institutions, CBC will die soon if the TSC continues that way. We want those teachers to be reinstated without any other attached issues against them,” said Kisii KUPPET Secretary General Joseph Abincha.

Nominated Senator Essy Okenyuri added: “Niliona mwenyekiti wa kamati ya bajeti Ndindi Nyoro akisema kwamba walimu wote wa JSS wataajiriwa, inasikitisha sana wakiachishwa kazi namna hiyo.”

Kisii TSC Director Ann Wachira told Citizen TV via a phone call that the JSS issues are being handled directly from the headquarters in Nairobi.

TSC after terminating the contracts of 742 JSS intern teachers on grounds of professional misconduct, sent letters to the affected teachers indicating that the intern teachers failed to either provide a satisfactory response with some reportedly choosing to not respond to show cause letters sent last month.

The dismissals came just two days after the teachers called off a nationwide strike, which initially commenced on April 17, to allow passage of the National Budget on Thursday.

KUPPET has since condemned the mass sacking, further threatening legal action saying proper procedure was not followed.